


Kiwi

by dbdude



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Feelings, M/M, Original Character(s), Plot, Relationship(s), Sexual Content, Triggers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:21:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25452328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dbdude/pseuds/dbdude
Summary: A drunken black out and going home with a stranger turns into something...Calum/OC
Relationships: Calum Hood/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	1. Thirsty

**Author's Note:**

> First time writing a fic.
> 
> Let me know what you like and what you hate.

First thing I feel when I wake up is the tell-tale sign that I got a bit drunk last night… thirst. I opened my eyes and stumbled out of bed in search of the kitchen for a glass of water. I opened the door and my eyes fell on a kitchen island and I made my way over to it. I started to rummage through the cabinets until finding a glass that I put under the faucet and chugged quickly. I refilled the glass and looked up to take in my surroundings (which was not my usual) and my eyes fell on two guys that were sitting on the couch watching me quizzically. I started to sip my water. 

“Good morning mate” said one of them in an aussie accent. He had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.

“Morning, how are y’all?” I replied trying to figure out where I had seen these two guys before, they looked familiar. The one who had greeted me was tall like 6’ 2 ish tall and the other guy sitting on the couch was maybe 6' 1, had dyed red hair, and green eyes. 

Under his breath I could barely make out him saying “Save a horse, Ride a cowboy” snickering to the other boy.

“I’m sorry what was that?” I asked him pointedly

“He just meant, we’re surprised you’re up so early. Sounded like a party in that room last night” the blonde one said with a grin. It sounded like an insult, but he said it friendly enough so I just nodded. 

“Oi! Boys lets get a move on! Where’s the Kiwi at?” said a man who had emerged from a room across the living space where the other two were sitting. He looked to be right around 6 ft tall, brownish green eyes, and dirty blonde almost brownish hair. 

After his statement the other two guys looked at with eyebrows raised “Yeah, where is ol’ Calum at?” The question from the blonde seemed to be directed at me. I pointed at myself in question.

“No the other guy who came from his bedroom with nothing on but briefs” The red haired one said with a smirk.

“Ummm. I’ll go check…” I didn’t even remember waking up next to anyone, but that would explain what I was doing there. Guess I got picked up by “a kiwi” last night, whatever that means.

“When you come back out have some pants on” one of them yelled at me, I heard some laughter but I had already slipped back into the bedroom and shut the door behind me before I could glare at whoever had said it. It was probably the red haired guy… he seemed like an asshole. I glanced down at myself though and noticed I was definitely not wearing a shirt, pants, or really proper underwear. I was in fact wearing what I liked to call my “hoe” undies. They were briefs with a tighter band under the ass to help perk them up a little bit more in tight pants.

“Mmmm” I turned around to lay my eyes on what is the pinnacle of my type laying in the bed that I had been in not 10 minutes before. He had jet black hair, a deep tan that looked like he had been blessed with at birth, he was some kind of asian descent or polynesian islander maybe. He had multiple tattoos running over his chest, clavicle, and left arm. He was propped up with his hands behind his head just watching me. 

“I was quite enjoying the view from the back” He said this with a side smile and a wink. His voice was a nice level of baritone, deep enough that I could listen to it for hours and a nice accent that was also very australian, seemed to be a trend in this place...

“Some guys out there asked me to find a kiwi… is that you?” I looked at him with raised eyebrows. His hands went down by his side to reveal a decent level of definition in his shoulders and triceps that I definitely appreciated. In the back of my mind I was trying to recall if anything had happened last night with him, but was just coming up with the memory of shots of fireball and rum… Ugh I'm going to kill those hoes when I get back to the gym.

“I’ve been called that once or twice” he said as he got out of bed. He put one of his hands on my shoulder and grabbed my face gently with the other. He looked at me and leaned forward. Our lips met and sparks fucking flew. Like people say that shit but literally I got tingly. I turned towards him fully and his hand dropped to my shoulder and slid down to the small of my back. He pulled me in and I grabbed onto his side and my other hand slid into his hair. It was so soft and nice. His tongue swiped at my lip asking for entry, I gladly opened my mouth and let the kiss deepen.

I didn’t want anything to change about what was currently happening, but then he pushed me onto the bed and our lips did not break apart during the transition. That’s talent right there. My hands started to roam his body, they glided down his back, feeling every muscle there. 

Then suddenly I heard a special text message tone. It was the one for Autothots. A group chat made up of some of my best friends. I rolled over so I could get out from under the man who was doing some crazy things to me…

“Oh fuck” I said. Mildly startling the hot god of a man who was definitely trying to have some morning fun. I looked at the bedside table, saw my phone, and grabbed it. 

9:24am it read, 10 texts from the Autothots, and a missed call from my assistant Jessica. 

“Fuck! I’m late” I got up and started searching for my clothes and then felt a presence behind me when I bent over to grab my pants. 

“Are you sure about that?” I stood up and felt his arms wrap around me, it felt so good and I melted into his hold and closed my eyes, he started to gently kiss my neck “We could have a repeat of last night” 

That got my attention and I snapped my eyes open, pulled away, and turned around to face him. “What exactly happened last night by the way?” I asked. He looked at me incredulously. I looked at him and smiled “I’m not complaining one bit about what happened or didn’t happen dude, just legit don’t remember anything passed pounding some shots with the girls” I laughed out.

He looked at me with eyes wide, chuckled a little bit, which was maybe the sexiest sound I’d heard in a while. “I hit on you at the bar, you were into it I think” He said with a smirk “We did some shots of vodka if I remember correctly, and then we came back here and well…” He trailed off while looking at the clothes that were thrown around the room. 

“Oh” I shrugged, good to know my drunk self stays true to my type. “Well, as much as I’d love to have you recreate last night for me, I really have to get to work. I’m late for a meeting.” He signed, a little sad being the understatement of the year. “I can call you a ride if you need.”

“Yeah that would be great man!” I replied

“But, it'll cost you” He said this with a smirk that I really do wish I could stay around to kiss off his pouty lips… I hope I put them to good use last night.

“What would that be?” I narrowed my eyes. He was playing a game, but I could play too.

“Your number. We didn’t quite get to that point last night, there was a distinct urgency to our encounter.” He bit his bottom lip after finishing this statement and glanced me up and down like he wanted to throw me on the bed.. again.

I looked away because of the blush that had my cheeks heating up and happened to find my shirt beside a chair in the corner of the room. I grabbed it, slipped it on, hoping it would deter the man.

“Fine, but I get to at least know your name” It seemed only fair I get to know the name of the guy I just had a one night stand with.

“Calum. Calum Hood” He said this with a certain air to his name, almost like he expected me to know who he was. He held up his phone when he said this as well.

“Nice to meet you Calum.” I grabbed his phone which was unlocked and went to his text messages and sent myself a text that said Calum Hood.

“Not going to tell me your name?” He stepped closer to me when he said this, He was close enough for me to smell him, and damn he smelled intoxicatingly good. 

I just stepped around him, scanned the room for the last of my things and walked towards the door “have that ride down stairs in five and I’ll text it to you.” With that I opened the door and walked out. The guys were sitting on the couch and watched me leave.

I hit the button for the elevator and grabbed my phone out of my pocket

**_What the hell happened last night??? - Me_ **

**_Fuck if I know… I havent gotten out of bed yet, room still spinning - Milcy_ **

**_I'm puking… - Z_ **

**_Y’all racked up a $300 dollar tab at the club and then you got some hot guy to pay for it - Db_ **

Db or Darby is like our mom… Like actually. I’ve only seen her ass drunk once and she’s seen me drunk off my ass more times than I’d like to admitt. I’m nowhere near as bad as the other two idiots in our merry band of hoes but I had a reason to celebrate last night… Apparently I did just that.

**_You’re fucking lying… That’s a lot of drinks - Me_ **

The elevator doors opened and I got in, hit the lobby button and went back to my phone.

**_You are correct. Maybe I’ll show you my favorites sometime ;) - Db_ **

**_Here’s a teaser -Db_ **

This was followed by a picture of me with a tray of shots of all different colors and it looked like I was feeling a little fruity by that point.

**_Oh no… -Me_ **

**BUZZ** I swiped down and looked at my notifications to see my assistant had texted me

**_You alive? - Jessica_ **

**_And if you are dead do I get a promotion? - Jessica_ **

**_I’m alive, on my way in now. Should be 30 or less? - Me_ **

**_OK, I got someone to cover your class already so no rush - Jessica_ **

**_Oh my God, thank you!!! - Me_ **

**_Yep - Jessica_ **

The elevator doors opened and I got out. There was a guy in a chauffeur outfit waiting by the elevator when I got out. 

“Need a ride?” he asked

“Yes…” I replied curious as to how Calum had gotten a ride so quick.

“Ok, follow me and go ahead and send Mr. Hood your name. I was told not to drive you anywhere until you did that.” I laughed, guess that’s one way to do that.

I opened the text conversation that said  **_Calum_ **

I typed out  **_Matt_ ** . I looked at it and contemplated sending my last name as well but decided against it. I hit send. “Ok all done” 

“Perfect, now do you have the address I’m driving you to?” He asked

“Yes” I told him the address of the gym and we walked out of the building. Outside waiting was a limo. I stopped dead in my tracks. That’s not for me is it?

“It is” 

“Oh” Who the hell did I go home with last night…

I spent the entire ride to the gym trying to remember anything from last night. Unfortunately the farthest into the night that I could remember was doing weird couple shots with Milcah. The ones where you put your arms through each other’s arms and take a shot like that… she’s like a sister… but messier. I could remember that, and Darby judging us hardcore but laughing and having fun, which was normal. What I still had no recollection of though was that hot man who I went home with though… I guess I really was drunk off my ass.

**_Nice to meet you Matt - Calum_ **

**_Same to you - Me_ **

**_Maybe I can jog your memory some time of what happened last night_ ** 😈  **_\- Calum_ **

**_I wouldn’t mind that - Me_ **

I saw the gym as we pulled up and was thankful I could go back to some normalcy. I thanked the driver and handed him a $5 dollar bill. I rushed out of the car and into the gym. 


	2. Normalcy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set up/introduction chapter, a look into Matt's 'normal' life.

“Didn’t think I’d ever see you again” Jessica came out from behind the front desk. Jessica is one of my favorite people, she has dyed pink hair and has a mild addiction to coffee with a bunch of sweet and low. I asked her to be my assistant when I opened the gym. She used to be my supervisor when I worked a front desk job as a teenager. “And then you pull up in a limo” she looks both impressed and curious.

“Yeah, got lucky with the uber I guess.” I shrugged off her probing

“Yeah, yeah sure... “ she said. Her eyes then zeroed in on my neck

“What?”

“Nothing, just never known you to be one to come into work sporting a hickey.” She said behind a grin.

I pulled out my phone and turned the camera on selfie mode. There it was clear as day, that guy left a mark on the left side of my neck, right in the middle too. “Crap” I pulled down my shirt collar a little and immediately let go, it looked like the damage extended down my collar bone, I’d have to take a better look at that later in the locker room.

“Ok, horny boy” Jessica said with a smirk. “You have to approve this budget for the expansion on the second floor and the new trainer is waiting in your office to be interviewed. She handed me a rave mask. “Put this around your neck, act like you were looking at the construction and didn’t want to breathe in the dust or something.” 

“Thank you!” I took the budget report she had in her hands and started to walk to my office. “Oh, can you check on how my class went? I want to make sure no one is upset or worried about me.” I saw Jessica nod and then I walked to my office.

My office was in the back of the almost 50,000 square foot facility. On the way back I slipped into a private employee bathroom and locked the door. I took my shirt off and saw a slew of marks, some deep purple, some light red all across my collar bone on both sides. I took out my phone and snapped a pic and sent it to Calum.

**_Thanks… Will be interesting at work today - Me_ **

**_They look good on you, should make it the norm_ ** **_😉 -_ ** **_Calum_ **

I thought about responding, but didn’t see the point. The odds of seeing this man ever again were slim to none, even if he really, really wanted to. He couldn’t stop thinking of how it felt to be in his arms, and those lips…  _ Snap out of it _ .  _ You have an interview to conduct! _

I slipped my shirt back on and left the bathroom. I walked back to my office and saw an attractive man, looked to be young 20’s, around my age. I assumed by the outfit this was the interviewee. He was dressed in a white, tight fitting dress shirt and black slacks. A little more formal than I was currently dressed in, which was black tight skinny jeans with rips in them and a white t-shirt. In my defense it is my gym so meh. 

“Good morning, excuse my tardiness.” I said to the man and reached out to shake his hand. He returned it with a firm grip and I could clearly see the muscles in his arms bulge as he shook my hand. This man definitely worked out, and looke d to be gifted in the arms department.

“It’s no problem at all.” he replied. I got lost on my way back here, this place is impressive!

“Thanks, it’s my baby. Figured go hard or go home in the size department” I chuckled. He smiled and I knew that I was going to get along with this guy. He handed me a piece of paper that looked to be his resume. I glanced down and read the top points

**Cornelius Anderson**

**ACE certified**

**Personal trainer with programming experience, specializing in weightlifting**

I set it down and looked back at him. “So, why my gym?”

He turned around, and through his dress shirt I could see his back muscles bulge. “Why not your gym? Seems like a nice vibe, nice people, you seem chill. Money is probably good too?” He asked with his eyebrows raised. 

“If you are any good” I replied with a smirk. He looked at me “I’m good”. 

Confident, I liked that. You need that in this line of work, can’t sell working out and making your body burn and ache everyday if you aren’t confident. “Did you bring workout clothes?” I asked

“Yeah? Why?” He cocked his head to the side.

“I’m a fan of working interviews for trainers,” I responded. He sat up straighter and started to smile. “Me too!” 

“Perfect, go get changed. I’ll meet you in the main lifting area by the front with a client that I’m doing a session with. Let’s see if you are all talk.” I got up and walked past him to go find Ashley. She is one of my friends and works in the childcare center, where parents can have their kids watched while working out. 

“Hey” I called out when I saw her. She wasn’t busy and there were some other staff who could fill in if they got a rush. “I need you to act like a new client and test out this guy, see if I should hire him.”

“Ughh, I have to work out?” She frowned “Fine, but margs are on you later then!” I smiled, and agreed. “Fine where is this guy?” 

“Is this who I’m training today?” Said Cornelius as he walked back in a pair of nice fitted joggers and a tank top. 

“Yep, this is Ashley. It’s leg day I think.” I smirked, Ash hates leg day, but I’m buying later so whatever. I need to see if this guy can do leg day stuff, since he has the musculature associated with the other main split days. 

Ashley, sighed “Yep, I guess so…” She walked forward, turned back and glared at me as she walked with Cornelius to the squat rack.

“Alright, I’m Cornelius but feel free to call me Corn.” He told her. “Let's start with some stretches and then we can start some squats and I’ll work you up to a good weight for you, sound good?” Ashley nodded.

I figured this guy would be a good trainer, I was more testing his mannerisms and politeness with her. So far so good. He was nice, but I wanted to see how he did in the middle of the workout. See how he handled her being a baby and trying to quit. This wasn’t her first time, she knew what I was looking for. She usually plays weak and inexperienced to see if they do any encouraging things, then she messes up form a little on something to see if they notice and how they correct it. Hopefully she will fail a lift, I want to see how this guy handles that.

I watch as they go through stretches, beginning sets, and as they go through exercise after exercise. I get caught up watching them, I don’t even notice when someone comes over to stand next to me and slaps my shoulder.

“OW!” I yelp as I look over.

Ashley and Corn look over at me. He looks worried and confused, Ashley starts to wave “Hi Milcah!!!” 

Milcah waves back then turns to me “What the fuck you idiot, why did we get so drunk last night?” I looked at her incredulously.

“Excuse me?! You are definitely the one who ordered a plate of rum shots, don’t even.” I smiled at her and grabbed her for a hug. She returned it. 

“New trainer?” She asked, I nodded back. “Hmm” I could see her looking him up and down and then turned away. He wasn’t her type, I understood that. He wasn’t my ideal type either… but I wouldn’t turn him down. I looked at her and smirked with a raised eye, she laughed at me. 

“So room spinning this morning?” I asked her. I turned away from Corn and Ash to talk to her, I already knew I was hiring him, he was good and he wasn’t bad to look at. 

“Yeah, thankfully no puking though so guess I'm lucky.” She said rolling her eyes. I laughed, it's true, usually she is heaving through the night and a wreck the next morning after a night of serious drinking. She got off pretty easy it sounds like. “What about you?” She said with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Oh just the usual, woke up thirsty as hell. Like normal. Nothing crazy.” She looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Thirsty, huh?” Does she remember me going home with that guy last night? I know I handle my drinks better than her so there’s absolutely no way she has any recollection. 

“Yep, you know how I get.” I replied nonchalantly.

She shrugged “True, wanna grab some greasy food to help out my stomach?” She looked at me expectantly.

I took a moment to contemplate, I should be watching my weight, but there is one place I'll make the exception for and she knows that. “Taco bell” we said in unison. She ran over to the front desk and grabbed an iPad, she walked back over and handed it to me. Her order was already in, chalupa cravings box, sub the cinnamon twists for nachos, and a Sierra Mist. I entered in a light order and set it to deliver here. 

I turned around to be met by Ash and Corn walking towards me. “You got the job, you start Monday.” 

“Really dude? You barely watched the workout.” He said with genuine confusion on his face.

“I just wanted to see how you interacted with a client, I know you workout and you’re certified. Just had to make sure you weren’t a dick.” I said with a smile. “Ash woulda told me if you were, oh by the way this is Ashley, she works in our child care area.” Cornelius looked dumbfounded when he found out Ashley was an employee here. 

“Oh, so you had her vet me and see how I was?”

“Yep, it's a rite of passage. Don’t feel too bad. If you want to fill out the rest of the employment papers that I need to pay you, they are at the front desk.” I pointed over behind me in the general direction of the front of the facility. He nodded with a smile and walked over. 

“I like him, he seems like he’ll fit in well here” said Ash after Cornelius walked away.

“I hope so.” I replied with sincerity.

*****************************************************************************

30 minutes later

Milcah and I were sitting in my office laughing and gossiping about some shit in our friend group while waiting for our food to be delivered. I had already read over the budget and signed it, so I was pretty much done for the day. Which was good because I really needed to go home and take a shower. I still smelled of sweat from the bar, booze, and Calum… I was still debating if I should text him back or not. It had been a few hours since he sent the flirty text back about my hickeys. Thank God for Jessica and her makeshift neck hider, that was a life saver during that interview and with Milcah right now.

My phone buzzed

**_Food is here - Front_ **

**_Thanks - Me_ **

“Finally, I’m starved” Milcah almost sighed out as she jumped up from the chair she was sitting in and basically ran out of my office. I pulled out my phone and stared at the message thread that read Calum in my phone.

“Who’s Calum?” Said Milcah as she appeared behind me with Taco Bell and drinks in hand.

“Umm, no one.” I replied as I put my phone down on the table. “Sure sounds like no one... “ She wiggled her eyebrows at me. She handed me my crunchwrap and she opened her box and started munching down on the chalupa. I kept looking at my phone, thinking about if I should see if he’s available to meet up. He’s probably not though, the nice guy had made it seem like they all had a busy day and life for that matter. I thought about it and grabbed the phone and added a picture of a kiwi as his contact picture. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, felt like I had to introduce people here and do some 'boring' writing. 
> 
> Writing this for me honestly cause I've been really getting back into 5SOS in general and this helps with my mood so yeah :) Let me know what you think.


	3. Sweat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A normal day at the gym

_ 5 Months later _

“So this is the new second floor guys, It’s going to be the new main area for cardio equipment. This will allow the bottom area to focus on weights, with dedicated olympic, deadlift, and crossfit lifting areas. Any questions?” I said while pointing out the areas of the gym downstairs. “This area is fully good to go, members can start to use it as of tomorrow at opening” It was passed closing time, and was just employees in the facility at this point. “If you all need anything, you 100% have my number. Use it.” I said seriously but in a lighthearted manner.

My employees laughed, “I think they’ll be fine Matt, it's just an addition.” Jessica said, rolling her eyes. “You all are great, just remember tomorrow is normal, there’s just extra space now guys.” 

The employees nodded.

“Ok then, everyone go home! See you guys tomorrow.” I said and everyone dispersed, except for Jessica. “Why am I nervous?” I asked her “Probably because you haven’t gotten any since you came in late with that hickey on your neck. I looked at her with wide eyes. She has always been super blunt. She just shrugged at me. 

I thought back, yeah I hadn’t gotten any… like at all. A few good chats every now and again at the bar but nothing really. I was on that trainer Corn for a while, trying to see if he was a possibility but that was a hard no when I saw him and Ash holding hands leaving one day. I was happy for them, but damn I wouldn’t have minded a little fun with the new guy.

“Have a good night Jessica, see you tomorrow morning.”

“Yep, remember you are teaching a HIIT class in the morning!”

Shit, I totally forgot about that. I both love and hate that class, it kicks my butt and I’m the instructor. I like the group that takes it though and we have a good time. I walked away and got in my car and drove home. For some reason my mind drifted back a few months to the day I hired Corn. The day I walked into work late with hickeys everywhere. The day that I woke up next to the hottest guy I’d seen in a while if not ever and didn’t even notice him. Why was my mind drifting to that? I blame Jessica and the hickey comment she had made. 

I pulled into the driveway of my house, went inside and immediately stripped down to my boxer briefs. I lived alone so it was no big deal. I went up to my room and turned the shower up to scalding hot. I turned on the speakers and hit play on the first thing in my spotify playlist. I jumped in the shower after slipping off my underwear. I started to relax into the water and let myself listen to the music. 

_ I guess I was running from something _

_ I was running back to you _

_ Lost here in London with nothing _

_ I'm still running back to you _

_ If you could love me again _

_ I could let go of everything _

I’d never heard it before, but I liked the song or at least this part of it. It was nice and relaxing, something I wouldn’t mind falling asleep to if they stripped away some of the instrumentals in it. The voice was really nice.

_ Nothing like the rain, nothing like the rain _

_ When you're in outer space, when you're in outer space _

_ Love me like you did, love me like you did _

_ I'll give you anything, I'll give you anything _

I made a mental note to favorite the song later. It would definitely be something I’d listen to and check the artist out. The voice singing the chorus was just super nice and relaxing. I closed my eyes and just listened to the rest of the song while leaning against the shower wall. The song ended and I figured I would wait and see what the next song was before I made up my mind on if I was done with my shower or not. 

_ I drove by all the places we used to hang out getting wasted _

_ I thought about our last kiss, how it felt, the way you tasted _

_ And even though your friends tell me you're doing fine _

_ Are you somewhere feeling lonely even though he’s right beside you? _

_ When he says those words that hurt you _

_ Do you read the ones I wrote you? _

It sounded like the same artist, maybe I’m really tired but I just leaned against the shower wall with the water running listening to it. It struck a chord in me for some reason. I started to tear up… glad I heard this for the first time in the shower, so at least the tears blended in with the water. 

_ I wish that I could wake up with amnesia _

_ And forget about the stupid little things _

_ Like the way it felt to fall asleep next to you _

Wake up with amnesia… sometimes I wish I could just do that. The song ended and some mainstream pop came on. I pushed off from the wall and decided to finish up my shower and get to bed. I finished washing myself and shut the water off, I reached for my towel to dry off and then grabbed my phone.The artist was someone he had never heard of before. I favorited the songs and figured I would look into it more later. 

I walked over to the bed and laid down, I let the playlist from earlier continue.

_ Everybody's got their demons _

_ Even wide awake or dreaming _

I heard this lyric and then at some point drifted off to sleep. 

That night I dreamed that I was on the coast somewhere, I couldn’t place where. Straight ahead I could make out some small islands in the distance. To my left, a big mass of land. The ocean between it all was so blue, I got lost in the color. In the depths of the ocean, something was moving though beneath the water, it was… swimming? Yeah, swimming really fast. For some reason it didn’t scare me, just intrigued me. 

It was getting closer to the surface, and I could almost make it out now. It was... a Shark!

**_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_ **

I woke up to the sound of my alarm going off, I hit snooze and groaned. “Why the fuck would I voluntarily do an 8am class… UGHHH!” I waited the 5 mins until my snooze went off again. Then I figured it was time to get up, so I rolled out of bed. Threw on some workout clothes and grabbed a white monster from my fridge. White monsters are God’s gift to humanity as far as I was concerned this morning. 

I hopped in the car and popped open the monster, took a sip. My phone auto connected and started playing more of the music that I discovered last night. It was good but I needed some EDM or hard rock if I was going to wake up enough to do this class. I threw on some  Jack - Ü and took a gulp of my Monster. About 15 minutes later, I was at the gym and parking. I walked in and was about 10 minutes early, so I stopped by the front desk. 

“How has it been this morning?” I asked the front desk girl working. 

“It’s been normal, members seem to like the extra space from the second story addition!” She said happily. “Good!” I replied, “I’m going to go teach my class and after I’ll either go to my office or fit in a workout.” She nodded at me and went back to whatever she was doing, looked like either a spreadsheet or twitter… Couldn’t really tell.

I walked over to the classroom that was set up for me today and saw most of my regulars there. “Morning guys! Should be a fun wake up class.” I said with the most energy, that I could muster up. I quickly downed the rest of my Monster and threw it away. I synced my phone up with one of the speakers and put on my normal EDM playlist for class. It started slow for warm-up/stretch and then went hard as fuck when we got into the exercises. 

I led the class through the normal stretches, and as we were ending them I heard the door open and close. Just a late one joining, probably Ronnie or maybe Scott. Who knows, I didn’t give it any thought, I just directed the class into a cycle of exercises. This seemed to kick everyone’s butts, however it felt good to me. I hadn’t gotten a chance to workout yesterday so this felt great! 

“Come on guys, just 2 more rounds of this one! Y’all got this” I encouraged.

“Ahh, fuck me” I heard behind me from someone clearly very out of breath. I had to think, was I really pushing these guys super hard, maybe… “No one’s allowed to pass out today guys. If you need water go get it. I’ll give y’all an additional 30 second rest for this round.” A collective sigh of relief went through the class. I chuckled, usually I can just go off how I feel, not today. “Ok, back to it!”

We finished up and I directed everyone into a circle in the middle of the room. “Planks y’all! You know the drill.” I like to finish this class with 3 cycles of planks. I led them through this and noticed someone staring very hard at the ground, shaking a little. That wasn’t what caught my eye, it was the tattoo on his upper arm. It looked to be tribal of some sort and it was on almost olive tone skin. I didn’t recognize the guy either. From the looks of his sweat soaked black hair, he got a good workout though. I went back to focusing on my plank and finishing up the class. 

“Last round guys! Finish Strong!” I encouraged my class, who looked to be at their limit. That was good, I did my job. I pushed them more than they would have. From the looks of the sweat drenched clothes and puddles of sweat forming below some of them, I did my job a little bit too well… I made a mental note to have someone mop this room when we finished up. “Ok. 1, 2, 3, 4, and done.” I announced, there was an audible sigh of relief when everyone released from the ab hold. If you need, you can lay here for a little and stretch it out, if not you are free to go.

I heard some leave but a few members stayed. I needed to stretch out my legs a little so I figured I’d stay and ask those who stayed how class was. 

“How bad was it?” I asked to the room.

One guy spoke up “It was good! Intense, but really good.” the others seemed to echo this and hummed in agreement. 

“Cool, I don’t know why but it just felt good and so I just upped the intensity a little bit” 

“Yeah, we noticed” A few of them laughed, “That poor new dude, he was dying!” one of them said.

“New dude?” I asked. “Yeah, he came in right after the stretches” they said. I would have to get his feedback if I saw him around, hopefully I didn’t scare him off. 

“Yeah” they responded. We all decided to stand then, having stretched out our muscles a sufficient amount. “Ok, guys good class see you later this week? I’m gonna go hit the sauna” I saw some nods after I said this and we all exchanged goodbyes. I stopped at the front and told them that the room would need a mopping really quick. The front desk girl nodded at me and went to grab a mop. “I’m gonna go hit the sauna. Try not to need me.” I smiled at them, I was only half joking. After this sweat session I had to get through some work. The gym is doing really well and we would need to start looking at our winter challenge and start up an ad campaign. As much fun as that sounded right now, I needed to relax and sweat it out for a minute. 

I headed to the aquatic area of the gym and nodded at the lifeguard as I peeked into the sauna. It looked empty. Good. I stripped off my tank, grabbed some headphones and a towel as I entered the small dark and hot room. On my phone I scrolled to the MCR/old Fall Out Boy playlist. As  _ Mama by MCR _ began to play, I added a generous amount of water to the rocks and laid back on my towel. The steam and heat started to engulf me and I relaxed into it, everything beginning to loosen.

As the song began to fade to the next, I felt the temperature drop and heard someone come in. I decided to just keep my eyes closed so I wouldn’t have to interact with another member. They usually want to talk so much since I own the place and give me advice on how to run it. In reality I don’t have much to do with the day to day operations of the gym, that responsibility has fallen on Jessica. She really knows more about this place than I do most of the time. I do more of the overall financial decisions and head up the fitness decisions. Everything else she seems way more comfortable with which includes member interactions.

The temperature was starting to lower a little so I had to either interact or leave. I wasn’t quite ready to get out so I sat up and looked at the other person. He had a towel over his face and was laying down. 

“Hey, mind if I add some water to the rocks?” He gave me the thumbs up so, I added a good 3 scoops of water to the rocks and sat there looking down. I noticed out of the corner of my eyes the same tattoo that I noticed in class earlier. Damn, now I wanted to say hi and maybe apologize for the intensity of the class. I waited for another song to finish and then decided to start a conversation.

“Hey, man. Sorry to bother you, but were you in my HIIT class a little bit ago?” I said to the guy still with a towel over his face.

“Oh were you the instructor?” he asked in a thick australian accent, that sounded familiar. “Yeah”, I replied, “How’d you like the class?” I asked with genuine curiosity, I haven’t had a new person take the class in a while. It has a reputation with the members.” I chuckled.

“It rooted me mate, bloody hard.” He replied, it sounded like there was a smile on his face. “Damn, dude. My bad, apparently I kicked the intensity up a little today by accident” I said, feeling a bit embarrassed. “Well at least I got to see you again.” He said. “Again?” I replied confused.

He sat up and took the towel off his face. “Oh shit” accidentally came out of my mouth. “Yep, kinda hard to ghost me when I'm right in front of you?” He said with a wink. 

“Ummm, I ummmm... honestly never foresaw us crossing paths again…” I stammered out.

“See, I didn’t either. With tour and everything, but you left an impression on me. Drove the mates crazy when I kept talking about you.” He said looking me dead in the eyes, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I left an impression?” I asked without thinking. 

“You did, not many people make it to my bed and then dash out in the morning like that” He said, especially none that look like you he said, his eyes travelling down my body slowly. He looked back into my eyes and bit his lower lip.  _ Damn… why did I leave his bed that morning?  _ Oh yeah “Well, I had to work” I said shrugging.

Total lie, I ended up hanging out with Milcah that day and eating Taco bell. “So is work the excuse for why you didn’t text me back either?” He said, the smirk evident on his face now and a little chuckle escaping from his lips at the end. I didn’t remember the sound of his laugh being so sexy… Damn I started picturing how this encounter was going to end. Either steaming up the sauna more than it already was, fucking in my office, fucking in the showers, so many options and they all seemed more than worth it as I started to stare at Calum biting his lower lip. 

“Umm, yeah” I stammered out “Been busy with construction here, just added a second addition…” I trailed off as Calum stood up and moved to stand in front of me. “Is that so?” “Yeah! You should check it out. It’s really nice.” I said as I glanced down his body at the distinct tent forming in his shorts. My eyes immediately shot back up to his. He had a very amused expression on his face. He was enjoying this.

“Yeah, it's a nice gym. You should give me a tour.” He said with a wink. He started moving closer, his lips were by my ear, he seductively whispered “especially if there are more views of you stretched out in some short shorts like you were in the beginning of that class.” He moved back and intensely stared at me, waiting for me to answer. I couldn’t think of what to say, his voice in my ear shut off my brain and turned on a different head. Had this not happened in a sauna, he would have seen the heat flood my face from his comment. 

“Ummm” I had to stop and compose myself to collect my thoughts. This was taking more mental faculties than I had to give right now. “I start every class with stretches” I was able to choke out. Calum laughed at that comment, his laugh made me groan. I didn't particularly care that he was definitely laughing at me and my horny stupidity. “I guess I’ll be at the next class then” He said and turned around to walk out. He stopped by the door and looked back at me. “Maybe reply to a text message and that little issue you are having can be taken care of” He motioned to my shorts which definitely was not doing anything to cover the boner I was sporting. I went to cover it up. “Why bother, not like I haven’t seen it” Calum said, smirking and left, shutting the door behind him. 

I sat there stunned, what the fuck had just happened…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully the story will get a bit more interesting now.


	4. Drinks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to drink

Immediately after  _ that _ sauna session I told Jessica I was leaving for the day and sped home. I basically threw my clothes off as I walked through the door. I had to jump into an ice cold shower as soon as humanly possible. I stood there under the freezing water as I attempted to process what I had just experienced. My one night stand from like 5 months ago, wait correction, my hot sexy god of a one night stand that I was cursed with not remembering, became a member of my gym and decided to seduce me in the sauna… and it had worked. I looked down and apparently the ice cold water and the drive here did nothing to alleviate a specific bone in my body. Would have to do something about that before I headed out. I needed to drink. A lot.

I turned up the temperature of the water, enough so that it was steaming and the glass shower door was now opaque because of it. I laid my head back on the wall of the shower and decided to replay the latter half of the sauna encounter in my head. Between the image of Calum biting his lip, the way he looked like he would take me right then and there, and the way my skin had tingled when he whispered against my ear… before I realized it I was busting a load all over the shower. “Fuck” I gasped out, as I caught my self before my legs gave out from under me. After I caught my breath I rinsed off any evidence of what had just happened and finished up my shower.

I got out of the shower and saw a notification, it was a text from Calum. 

**_Was nice to see you today ;) - Calum_ **

**_Yeah. - Me_ **

**_Well part of you seemed to not mind seeing me again… - Calum_ **

I stared at the screen and couldn’t make my brain comprehend what was happening. So, I opened up Autothots 

**_Bitches, I have tea and need to fucking drink - Me_ **

**_OH HELL TO THE YEAH! - Db_ **

Zehra and Milcah both emphasized my text and then liked Db’s.

**_Spill that Tea girl - Db_ **

**_The usual spot, see y’all in an hour - Me_ **

**_K - Z_ **

**_Okie dokie artichokie - Milcah_ **

******************************************************************************

The sting of tequila hit the back of my throat, but at this point I welcomed it gladly like an old friend. Meanwhile Milcah was gagging and making faces like she was a freshman in college again. Actually I think she used to be better at taking shots then… 

“So lemme get this straight, this mans that you hooked up with five months ago and have no recollection of having said one night stand with, showed up to your class today. Proceeded to then follow you into the sauna, confronted you, made it all sexy steamy in there… but there was no fuck?” 

“Yeah, that’s pretty spot on Zehra” 

“Wow” she thought for a moment “that’s some wild shit... “ She blinked at me and then a thought looked like it popped into her head, “We need more shots!!! I’m thinking rum this time.” 

“I knew there was a reason we were friends!” I said as I smiled at her. Darby looked confused however, “Why didn’t you ever text back the  _ hottest man you’ve ever laid eyes on _ ?” She said this while making air quotes with her hands.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see him again… and he could have been terrible in bed” I said trying to change the subject, it didn’t work.

“Well, apparently you weren’t so…” Milcah said with a wink. Darby looked at me and cocked her head to the side “Let me see the texts” “Why?” I replied “Because I’m your fucking mother! Now hand the shit over” I looked at her a little sheepishly and handed over my phone.

“Why in the fuck is his contact photo a kiwi?” She asked. Milcah and Zehra both burst out laughing. I grabbed a shot and downed it fast. “Well when I woke up after the supposed one night stand or whatever, I went to get water and some guy asked me where the kiwi was, and apparently it was in reference to Calum” 

“The fuck?” Zehra burst out. “He’s a fucking kiwi?? Like the fruit or the bird?” Her and Milcah were completely hysterical at this point, already a bit drunk. I looked at Darby, picked up two shots, and handed one to her. She grabbed it, we cheersed, and then we both put it back like no one's business. Shots were the one thing all of us could do, even when we couldn’t handle the rest of our lives. As I set the shot glass down, I heard the ring of the bar door in the background but paid little attention to it.

“Oh mah gawd, Matt… did you hook up with a vampire??” Darby said as she showed me the picture of my hickeys that Calum caused a few months ago, I groaned. “I need another drink” I said as I got up and made my way over to the bar, leaving behind the girls giggles, “Hey, can I get a rum and coke please?” I asked the bartender, who had been seeing me too much over the years. “Make that two.” came a sexy baritone voice behind me. I whipped around and was face to face with Calum, who was just smirking away.

He was dressed in a simple black t-shirt and skinny jeans that fit him too well. It looked like he had been watching me from afar, “Fancy seeing you here, instructor.” He said with that distinct aussie accent. “Guess we have something in common” I retorted “The bartender came over with our drinks then, I grabbed mine and chugged half of it. “Thirsty there?” Calum said with a raised eyebrow and a very amused look on his face. 

“Parched actually, What do you want?” I replied, a bit annoyed from the blue balls he had given me earlier.

“You” I looked at him with raised eyes. “You do realize, I still don’t remember that night right.” 

“I can fix that” He replied and stepped a little closer, invading my personal space. 

“I’m sure you could… but I’m here with some friends actually.” I said and looked over at my table with the “thots”. “Well, I’m waiting on some mates so why don’t I join ya?” He said and walked over towards my table. I didn’t have the mental agility to transition that fast and ended up just standing there until I realized what was happening.  _ Oh fuck _ .

“Hey, what’s up girls?” Calum said as he pulled up a chair to my table directly across from where I was sitting. I took my seat and prepared myself for what was about to go down.

“Hi, who are you?” Darby asked. Blunt and to the point, it was one of the main reasons we were good friends. Zehra and Milcah looked at her shocked and a little offended for some reason. “This is Calum Hood, Darby. How are we friends.” Zehra looked at Calum and then at me. “No fucking way. I’m getting pranked.” She said to me. 

“What are you talking about? And how do you know his name?” I said looking at Zehra. Calum sat back in his chair with that fucking smirk that never seemed to leave his face at this point and looked fully content to just watch the show that was unfolding in my little group. 

“He’s in 5 Seconds of Summer… Honestly how are Z and I friends with you guys??!!” Milcah said and shook her head in amazement. She looked at Zehra and they both just picked up a shot of something and downed it. “The better question is how do you know Calum, Matt?” Zehra and Milcah said in unison. It looked like they were starting to connect the dots of Calum being Calum from my phone and the gym.

“Ummm, I think he joined the gym today. He was in one of my classes.” I said with a shrug and then proceeded to down the rest of my drink. 

Darby looked at me, and then at Calum, and then back at me, “Wait, Calum… as in vampire?” He sat up straight and put his elbows on the table and leaned in towards her to join the conversation. 

“Vampire?” He said, with his eyes glued to mine, satisfaction evident in his eyes. I had talked about him to my friends and that meant something in his mind.

“I swear to God Matt, how are you living my best life and you don’t even understand what is happening??” Zehra said. It looked like her and Milcah were nearing the end of their drinking limit and I really didn’t feel like carrying Milcah out of the bar over my shoulder like she was a toddler having a temper tantrum… again. I pulled the plate of shots over closer to me and gave Darby a side look. 

“I’m still waiting on my answer.” Darby said firmly. No one wanted me to have any level of dignity tonight apparently. I didn’t answer her so she looked over at Calum, “So, how’d you hear about Matt’s gym” she asked him innocently, she was prying for information. “Oh, one of the trainers recommended it, since I opted to stay in the area for a while.” He said this and winked at me as we made eye contact. “Something stood out last time I visited.” I looked away from him and down at the table. My head was starting to get fuzzy from the four or five shots that I had decided to just throw back within the course of twenty minutes. I then heard a song start to play in the bar, it was one of the songs that I had heard the other day in the shower. I decided to tune out the conversation happening around me and just listen to it. A smile crept onto my face automatically and I began to sway to the song. I think the song was called  _ Amnesia  _ but in all honesty I wasn’t sure. I just knew that I liked it and for some reason it made me feel grounded, despite the subject matter being sad. 

As the song finished, Darby, Milcah, and Zehra were having a conversation with Calum. I looked back out of the corner of my eye, to see if the conversation had moved on and saw Calum watching me with a grin and what looked to be a smile. It still had a hint of cockiness but there was something more behind it. I looked at him quizzically “What?”

“Nothing” He replied, and took a sip of his drink and returned to the conversation with my friends. The bar door chimed, signaling that there were new guests. “Oi! You have a shirt on this time mate!” Said the shorter man of a group of three guys who had just entered the bar. Darby looked at me but I just ignored her. I recognized these guys. “You’re from the hotel room.” I said as I pointed at them. “And you’re from Calum’s bed” He replied, pointing back at me, with a shit eating grin on his face. I smiled back, I remembered liking him, even if our initial encounter was mildly embarrassing for me. He had a friendly demeanor that drew me in. “How are ya?” He asked me and pulled up a chair beside me, I shrugged. He outstretched his hand to shake mine, “I’m Ashton”. He shook my hand firmly but warmly, I smiled “I’m Matt”.

“Nice to meet ya, Matt.” Ashton grinned and made a side glance towards Calum who looked to be incredibly calm, yet his eyes showed a hint of nervousness about this interaction. Ashton’s eyes darted back to mine as if nothing had happened. “These two blokes are Luke and Michael” Ashton said as he pointed at the two guys he came in the bar with. I looked at them for the first time and realized they were the two from the couch. “Hey” I replied. 

The taller one replied “Luke here”. The one with red colored hair raised his hand “Michael, how’s it going cowboy” he winked at me. I remembered not liking Michael as much as the other two. The way Calum choked at the comment made me smile though. “You’ll have to tell me how I got that nickname sometime.” I winked at him mischievously. “Gladly” He replied, we were both enjoying Calum being uncomfortable at this conversation.

“And as you know, This is Calum!” Ashton made a big display with his hands in the direction of Calum.  _ Yeah, I know who Calum is,  _ I thought in my head, but just rolled my eyes. “Well this is Milcah, Zehra, and Darby.” I introduced each of the girls to the boys. Michael and Luke both grabbed a chair and sat down at the table.

“New friends! We’ll go grab some shots to celebrate!” Zehra and Milcah scurried over to the bar to order God knows what. I really should be concerned with our terrible binge drinking habit, but it just was how it was. Autothots went out every other week, something every week depending on our mood, and drank ourselves to the brink of death. It was just tradition at this point. The bartender didn’t question it and we always tipped enough that they would just keep it coming anyway. “They may or may not be alcoholics.” I said, shrugging as the boys all looked at me. The two then returned with a plate of what looked to be B-52 shots. “Ughh” I outwardly moaned. 

“No no! These are fine for you! Almond milk Baileys Matty!” Milcah said with a level of cheerfulness in her voice that made me return a smile and laugh. 

Ashton looked at me incredulously, “What the fuck are those?” I almost laughed my ass off at that comment, but reigned it in just to a chuckle. I picked up two shots and handed him one. “Try it” I said as I cheersed his glass. “Alright, whatever you say Matty!” He winked at me and we both downed them and I realized that I could very easily black out tonight but decided to ignore it as the familiarity of Kahlua hit my tongue. I smiled after swallowing and turned the shot glass over on the table and looked to Ashton. He looked disgusted by the taste, “Bloody hell, what the fuck was that” The girls looked at him in disbelief, “Kahlua, baileys, and triple sec” Milcah replied as if everyone should know this, “What’s there to hate?”. I shrugged and picked up another and looked at the girls. They all grabbed one as well. My eyes then went to Calum, I raised my eyebrows at him, daring him to partake. I was getting a little bit more confident with the amount of liquid courage in my system at this point. He grabbed a shot, never breaking eye contact with me and raised it while looking at me, I looked at the girls and we all raised our glasses as well. 

The girls and I all took our shots down with stone cold looks on our faces. Zehra sighed after she swallowed and it looked like she was going to grab another, I didn’t blame her. One of the main things we shared a love for was coffee and another was alcohol, the combination of the two was deadly when we were together. I looked at Calum as he took his shot, he had a look of confusion as he was trying to decipher the taste in his mouth, but he looked to settle on a look of satisfaction and turned his glass over on the table to mirror mine. “That’s not bad innit” he said.

“That’s bloody terrible mate!” Ashton basically coughed out still recovering from his shot. Milcah laughed at him. Darby and Zehra just gave him a weird side look like he was going insane. “How can you not like it?” they said in perfect unison with equal amounts of annoyance. I grabbed Ashton into a hug, “Be nice!” I said, “If Mr big and bad australian man can’t hang, it isn’t his fault!” He looked shocked and just gave us weird looks, “I’m gonna go grab a real drink” he said as he excused himself to the bar. We laughed as he walked off, flipping us the bird. “Love you too!” I called out as he walked off. Calum looked confused at my sign of affection towards Ashton, I just ignored him. 

“Is Ashton exaggerating?” Michael said as he picked up a glass.

“Yeah” Calum replied dryly. That seemed to be enough for Michael. Luke also picked up a glass and looked at Michael, he shrugged and they clinked their glasses together. After a moment passed, “That ain’t too bad” They said and set their glasses down. I smiled and grabbed another shot, the girls followed suit.

******************************************************************************

A few hours and many drinks had passed and everyone seemed to be getting along. It probably helped because at this point, we were all drunk. I was feeling a little ballsy and a question had been at the back of my mind from earlier in the night.

“Hey Ashton” He turned to look at me, clearly a bit tipsy or drunk… couldn’t really tell. “What’s a Kiwi?” he looked at me with confusion for a second and then understanding dawned on his face, this was followed by him laughing so hard, I looked around and saw that Luke and Michael were also snickering. Calum just looked amused, maybe a little embarrassed and crossed his arms over his chest. “What?” I asked as I looked at Ashton and then to the other boys.

“Nothing, nothing” He said as he wiped away the tears that had formed from laughing so hard. “It’s just something you call New Zealanders” He said. He looked genuinely happy and it was kind of adorable. “Oh” I said and turned to Calum, “So, you’re from New Zealand?”I asked him. “My mum is, so I’m half kiwi” He shrugged, I got the feeling he didn’t like questions directed at him in a group setting at least so I just nodded. 

I looked over and saw that Milcah was at  _ that _ stage of the night. I stood up and looked at Zehra, she wasn’t as gone and knew the look and nodded “Well as fun as this has been, I need to take her home” I said as I motioned towards Milcah. She was getting a bit sloppy so no one really questioned it.

“Can you drive?” Calum asked me, his brow was slightly furrowed and he looked worried.

“Yeah” I replied, “I’m fine”. Calum didn’t look convinced. “I’ll drive,” He said as he stood up. My jaw dropped a little, but I quickly closed my mouth back up.  _ He was so authoritative and cocky… and I liked it.  _ My head hurt and it wasn’t only from the alcohol. I got up and moved to make sure Milcah could walk, she was fine. Not pass a sobriety field test level fine, but walk to a car she could probably handle. We all walked outside and the cold November air hit us. I welcomed it, the cold air on my skin felt nice and I breathed it in deep.

“Where’s your car?” Calum asked me. “You really don’t have to drive me home Calum, I’m fine.” I said trying to convince him. “I’m sure you think you are, but better safe than sorry. One of the boys will drive my car back for me.” he said “Now, where is your car?” He asked again.

I pulled out the keys and activated the remote start. My car turned on right next to where Calum was standing. “There” I replied back with a small grin forming on my face. He was being protective or caring or something like that, it was nice. No one had ever cared for me like that before. I walked over to the passenger side and opened up the door for Milcah to slide in. She got in and laid down in the back, foregoing the seat belt. I got in and looked at Calum, he looked confused but started the car. 

“Never pegged you as a sports car guy Matt.” He said under his breath and started the car up. It roared to life and he looked at me. “Yeah, I’m glad I didn’t let you drive this home” He chuckled. 

“Let me?” I asked with raised eyebrows

He nodded and pulled out of the parking lot. “Yep”. That signature smirk appeared back on his face as he asked me for directions. I tapped Milcah’s address on the GPS, it was saved under favorites even though I had the route memorized. It was a good fifteen minute drive though and I didn’t feel like navigating, it was probably good that Calum was driving if I was being honest. Calum looked like he was having some fun with my car. I didn’t blame him, there was a reason I bought it after all. It was a 2017 Corvette black as night with bright red interior. It was my favorite car mainly because of how it sounded. I glanced over at Calum and he looked happy in the driver's seat. I was mildly surprised he was able to drive it to be honest, with it being stick shift. Most people who wanted to drive my car weren’t able to, the ability to drive stick was few and far between nowadays unfortunately. “I’m impressed,” I muttered. Calum’s smirk got bigger, dammit he heard my comment.

We pulled up to Milcah’s house and I got out to help her out. I walked her up to her door and unlocked it for her, “Are you good? Need anything?” I asked, my concern coming out. As much as I hated her sometimes, I loved her like a sister.

“Nope, go have fun with the kiwi.” She laughed and kissed my cheek goodbye. It then hit me that Calum would be driving me home… in my car. He would have no way back to his place unless he called an uber. Even then it would still be a gap of time where he would be at my house. I sighed out loud, this would be an interesting night to say the least.


	5. Current

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Calum then groaned and shifted over closer to me and tightened his grip. I sighed and laid back down without even thinking about it. I was fucked, I knew nothing of Calum, absolutely nothing, but I knew that the touch of him was enough to make me never want to let go and that scared me. I laid there content to be held, and pondered what the fuck this meant, how to proceed with whatever this was.

The drive to my house was silent, but not an awkward kind of silent. There was some kind of electricity in the air… or maybe I was just imagining it, I had a good amount to drink so wasn’t out of the question. _Why do I have the hots for Calum? He’s hot and sexy, but so were a bunch of people_. I didn’t know who Calum was even though Milcah and Zehra apparently did. Something about 5 Seconds of Summer, he remembered from earlier in the evening. He had never heard of the group before and made a mental note to ask those two about it later. 

In an attempt to get my mind off of thoughts of Calum I focused my attention to the music that was playing. I zoned out listening to the radio and sound of my car.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Calum was content with how the night had gone, he’d run into Matt at the bar that he wanted to check out with the boys and the evening had only gotten better from there. It almost went south when that small philipino girl decided to get mildly drunk but she was cute enough it didn’t bother him. It just made him have to act quick so his night didn’t end. The bar started playing one of their older hits at one point, he had cursed when he recognized the song as _Amnesia_ one of their older songs that was a fan favorite. It was quiet enough though that no one really heard it, especially the two girls who were obvious fangirls, but not in a bad way. It was just obvious they had followed the band since it got big. He thought back to how Matt had tuned them all out and listened to the song. It was cute how he just closed his eyes and moved his head to the rhythm of the song, but it surprised him. He acted like he didn’t know who Calum was, so how did he know one of the band’s older songs.

They pulled up to Matt’s house and he parked in the driveway. He glanced at the house, it was big from the outside he could tell that Matt was into the minimal and modern look.

He turned to Matt. “I have a question.” He stated. Matt turned back to him with eyes raised, “Yeah?” 

“How does a trainer afford this car and that house?” He said motioning to the two story structure in front of him.

“Oh” Matt said and looked down sheepishly, “Umm, I’m not just a trainer at the gym…” he said and looked out the window, he seemed a bit embarrassed for some reason. Whatever job he had, it seemed to pay pretty damn good Calum thought to himself.

“Ok? What else do you do there?” he asked, genuinely curious. 

Matt looked back at him, “I own it.” He stated.

“Damn, but you’re only like twenty one or twenty two right? You come from money or something?” He asked, adding the last part jokingly. He wasn’t someone to normally be impressed but he was, that place was top tier as far as he was concerned.

Matt looked at him with a furrowed brow, “No, I worked hard for it.” he stated with a serious tone to his voice. He then opened the car door and got out. He looked pissed off, “Fuck” Calum said to himself. He turned the car off and got out to run after him. 

“Hey!” He said as he caught up to Matt. “I didn’t mean to be rude.” He said and looked at Matt right in his eyes. He knew from the moment he saw Matt at that bar those five months ago that he wanted to know him. Matt was about the same height as him, white with a slight tan that looked like it was from being outside a good amount, and he had deep brown eyes. “I’m just shocked. You clearly know what you’re doing if you are able to afford all this.” He gestured to the car and house. He winked at Matt in an attempt to get that smile to replace the thin line that he was currently sporting. It worked a little bit, his lips turned up at the corners into a quasi smile.

“Thanks” Matt replied, “Want to come inside?”, Calum nodded. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was worried about if there were any expectations about what was going to happen now that Calum was in his home. He didn’t invite many people over. Being more of a go to others’ place kinda guy. Even with his friends, he usually went to Darby’s or Zehra’s house and hung out there. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust them being at his house, it's just letting people in is hard… and his house is where he can be himself. At the gym he has to be the boss or a gym rat. Around his friends he relaxes a bit, but he still feels like there is a certain expectation. When he’s at home he is himself. 

Calum looked around as they stepped into the foyer, looking like he was just taking everything in. I slipped off my shoes and put them by the shoe rack. He looked at me with a curious and amused look. “What?” I asked. Nothing, he replied, and slipped his black boots off and put them next to my tennis shoes. “Just don’t know many seppos that take their shoes off when they enter their home.”

I just rolled my eyes at the comment. I didn’t know what a ‘seppo’ was, but it sounded light hearted so I didn’t take it as an insult. “Want a drink?” I asked and walked over to the fridge and grabbed two beers. Calum nodded and I opened them and handed one to him. He took a gulp of it and set it down. 

“Can I ask you something?” Calum said as he stood on the opposite side of the big island that was the main attraction in my kitchen. “Sure?” I replied. He took a moment and we held eye contact while I waited for him to say something. “Who’s your favorite artist right now?” Not what I was expecting and probably not the question he wanted to actually ask but I just chuckled a little. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and synced it up to the speaker system that was installed throughout my house. I loved listening to music wherever I was in the house. I turned on just the kitchen speakers and played one of my playlists that highlighted The Black Keys. The song that I clicked to start it off on was one of my favorites. As the initial beat started from the song, I studied Calum’s face. He seemed like the type who would know it, or maybe not. I forgot where I heard the song first, but just knew I’d loved it since I had first listened to it. 

“Good taste” He said simply and smirked at me. I took a sip of my beer, not breaking eye contact. “You?” I asked and slid my phone across the counter with Spotify open. He picked it up and started searching something up. The song then changed and I heard the familiar sound of Bon Iver start to play. _Of course he had to have good music taste along with everything else_. I looked back up to see Calum looking at me, he had a slightly furrowed brow while watching me. “Not too bad, Kiwi” I said, testing out the nickname. 

Calum cocked his head at me and the smirk grew into a grin. “I’m surprised, that playlist in class was the exact opposite of this type of music.” 

“Yeah, well as much as I’d love to play rock and punk classics in class I don't know if it would get everyone going like EDM seems to.” Calum nodded “Fair enough”. He started scrolling through my phone and stopped. “5 Seconds of Summer?” He asked and looked up at me, he looked too happy to see that on my liked songs. “Who?” I asked genuinely confused.

Calum looked at me and rolled his eyes, “Stop pretending. I knew that you knew who I was.” I just continued to look at Calum confused. I grabbed my phone and looked at the song he was looking at. It was _Amnesia_ and the band was in fact called 5 Seconds of Summer. The dots connected and I looked up at Calum. “Ohhhh, You’re in this band?” I asked

Calum just looked at me with raised eyebrows and took another drink from his beer. “I honestly didn’t know.” I said and shrugged. “I just heard this song the other night, it popped up on some playlist and I liked it.” I tapped it and let it start playing. I closed my eyes and leaned against the counter to listen to it. I started to try and comprehend the lyrics and my eyes shot open to look at Calum. “That’s your voice?” I said this more as a confirmation than anything else and just looked at him. He looked back at me, he seemed to be convinced that I wasn’t acting now. He walked around the counter and stood closer to me on the other side of the corner, his shoulder almost touching mine. 

“Yeah” He said, almost laughing. “I play bass and occasionally have a decent vocal,” He said with a smile on his face. I nodded, “You’re not bad” I complimented him, a grin on my face. I turned up the song a little. I could hear emotion behind the words Calum was singing. I wondered who had hurt him the man.

“You good there?” I glanced up to see Calum watching me with a slight furrow to his brow, almost like he was concerned, I nodded as my reply. “It’s a good song” I stated simply. 

I grabbed my beer and finished it in one go. Calum took a sip of his as he watched me. “So, you gonna call an uber?” I asked, more as a way to break the silence and it being the first thing that popped into his head other than _Wanna fuck?_ He wasn’t particularly in the mood to have sex, although if Calum had asked he would probably accept without a second thought.

“Do you want me to leave? He replied, his tone was cool and relaxed like it always seemed to be. He didn’t show emotion much and it was one of the things that made him intriguing. I took a moment and then just shrugged and moved towards the living room where a the couch was. It was a black sectional that he loved evident by the amount of times he had fallen asleep on it after coming home late at night. It was just so comfy.

As I flipped on the T.V. and was deciding what to watch on Netflix, Calum made his way over and sat on the couch. 

“Any preferences” I asked. 

He took the remote from my hand, letting his hand linger a little on mine as he took the remote. It felt like a current of electricity passed through him when he touched me, not a painful electricity like you would get from a shock, but like an attraction or a pull almost. When he let go of me, I almost let out an involuntary groan. I stopped myself though, thankfully. I couldn’t live that one down, this man had already basically had me eating out of the palm of his hand in the sauna today. Damn, how was that today? He needed some sleep he realized as his eyes were getting heavy. It had been a crazy long day in all fairness and the warmth coming off of Calum wasn’t helping. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I looked around and saw that I was on a cliff, looking out over the ocean. He had always loved the ocean, the waves calmed him. The sound, the smell, the ocean mist in the air. It had always made him feel calm. 

I looked down and saw a shark swimming in the ocean, he wasn’t afraid of the shark just curious as to what it was doing. He sat down and let his legs hang over the edge and studied the shark. Even from high up it was obvious that this was a much larger shark than average, almost a comically large size. He remembered reading about the megalodons that had once ruled the ocean and thought if this was one of them. His head cocked to the side as the shark continued to swim in a circle. As the circling continued, a funnel seemed to appear on the water or in the water maybe? The funnel was the water he realized. 

The shark was creating a whirlpool. He couldn’t believe what was happening, but he was entranced by it and almost involuntarily leaned forward. Suddenly he was falling from the cliff and heading into the middle of the whirlpool. As he fell, he wasn’t scared. The fall seemed to never end, everything slowed as if he was moving in slow motion and then as he was going to touch the water the shark seemed to stop and look at him. A pair of dark eyes looked at him and the moment seemed to never end, the eyes seemed to be as old as time and carried with them a sadness that he could feel in his soul.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up, the back of my shirt was damp with sweat and a nauseous feeling had popped up in my stomach. I was on the couch in my living room and all the lights were off. “Why do I always have to have dreams of falling?” I muttered. They always made his stomach turn over and made him feel weird. It was impossible to even try to fall back asleep after one of those. 

“Mmmm” A groan echoed in the darkness. _What the hell? -_ I thought. My mind entered into a fight or flight scenario involuntarily. His eyes darted around the room searching for the source of the groan. An arm gripped tighter around his waist, the only thing stopping him from immediately jumping out of his skin was what felt like an invisible pull. It felt almost natural to him. 

I looked down and saw a very tan arm wrapped around my waist. _JKH_ was written on the hand attached to the mysterious arm that belonged to whoever was on the couch with him. When I looked over, I was surprised and relieved to see it was Calum.

_Why the fuck was Calum on my couch with his arm wrapped around me?_ He must have passed out on the couch. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time, the screen flashed too bright forcing me to squint my eyes at the onslaught of light; **4:30am** it read. His work scheduled shifted between going in at 6am or 9am. It honestly depended on his mood, there was no real reason to go in if there wasn’t a class to teach. Jessica handled most of the paperwork, but he liked to be there. The gym was his baby and he enjoyed most of his members and the staff. There were of course a few members that he wished would cancel, but they were the minority and thankfully weren’t too vocal. I contemplated getting up while staring at Calum’s hand that was holding onto his side now. ‘JKH’, I wonder what that stands for, he made a mental note to ask him when he woke up. Too many mental notes...

Calum then groaned and shifted over closer to me and tightened his grip. I sighed and laid back down without even thinking about it. I was fucked, I knew nothing of Calum, absolutely nothing, but I knew that the touch of him was enough to make me never want to let go and that scared me. I laid there content to be held, and pondered what the fuck this meant, how to proceed with whatever this was. 

The internal conversation going on his head became too hard to focus on as Calum kept moving closer and closer, his hand had haphazardly moved to lay across my chest as he was lying stomach down with his face turned towards me, and our legs touching. I laid there and looked at his face and the only thought that was going through my head was an image of him pressing his lips to Calum’s. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting to get a feel for where this story is going to go.
> 
> Been trying to post a chapter a day, but have my final for a summer class coming up so might get delayed.
> 
> Thanks for reading :)


	6. Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Fuck me” exhaled Calum as he was drenched in sweat.   
> They were in the storage area of the gym.   
> “Yeah?” I asked, I had barely broken a sweat.

“Good Morning Virginia, it is December 1st” Sounded on the TV.

I must have fallen back asleep… I didn’t open my eyes; they were still glued shut from sleep. There was a weird tingle on my leg, a ghost of electricity maybe? Too early in the morning to really comprehend what it was, just that he didn’t mind it. I cracked my eyes open and saw Calum sitting lazily on the couch scrolling on his phone. I decided to fully open my eyes and blink away the sleep that was still there. Not making any other motions and just watching, Calum seemed to be content to just sit there next to him, the TV was on, but he was paying it no mind. His jet-black hair looked so soft and there was something so care free about his expression this morning, it was something that fit him. Calum’s face was something that I could stare at all day if given the chance…

My arm started to tingle from numbness, I shifted it and Calum looked over and smiled fondly at me. “Guess who finally woke up” his smile shifting to that trademark smirk. I wanted to see the smile come back, I shouldn’t have moved, should’ve let my arm fully go numb. It would have been worth it.

“Had a long day yesterday” I said as I sat up and stretched my arms. I looked up at the TV and saw it was 9am. _Damn, I really must have been tired if I fell back asleep after one of those dreams_. I almost never fall back asleep after any dream where I fall. It was not a super common occurrence to have one of those dreams, but it was something that messed up his sleep schedule and would make the next day or two miserable for him. 

“Wait, why did you stay?” I asked and looked at him. I was not necessarily complaining but I barely knew the guy.

He just shrugged and went back to his phone. Something told me that this was a go to response for him. “Does it bother you that I stayed?” He asked me, not looking at me. He appeared to be focused on his phone, but he was listening for my response.

I thought for a moment, “Bother me? No. Bring up a few questions? Yes.” I replied and then got up off the couch. I needed coffee. I grabbed a pair of slip-on shoes and a hat to contain my hair that had been destroyed by sleep. “You coming?” I asked as I grabbed my keys from the table by the door.

******************************************************************************

As we waited in the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru the only thing I could think of is how nice it would be to feel that electric feeling again. It was a little addictive, I had to resist the urge to reach over and rest my hand on Calum’s thigh. I caught myself after a moment of staring down at Calum’s lap and looked back up to the car in front of me.

“What’s your usual order?” Calum asked

“Large iced, caramel, splash of almond milk.” I replied without even thinking. It was my go-to, I reserved cold brew for days when I really needed it. Which was more often than I cared for it to be. Hopefully, it would slow down now that they were done expanding at the gym for a while. “How about you Kiwi?” I asked, my mind was still a little sleepy, so it was more of an involuntary question. “Black” he replied, glancing at me with the use of the nickname. 

I looked at him with raised eyebrows. “What? Yours isn’t too far from it. Who gets coffee without sugar?” He replied to my unspoken ‘ _are you serious?’_ I raised my hands in defense. The car in front of us finished up. I ordered as we pulled up, I couldn’t tell if I liked the weird silence that had fallen over the car or found it disconcerting.

I pulled up to the window to pay and get the drinks and saw Calum reach for his wallet. Ignoring this, I just paid with my phone app before he had a chance to get his card out. I acted like I didn’t notice and then handed him his coffee. I thanked the girl who was there, and her eyes questioned who the guy in my passenger seat was. I just smiled back at her. She was the normal girl who worked the morning shift here, and since I had a mild obsession with coffee, we saw each other almost every day. 

We pulled out of the drive thru and I took a sip of the delicious liquid that was in my cup. There are few things in life that brought me the same amount of joy that a Dunkin iced coffee did. If I had to give up iced coffee or sex… it would probably be sex. _Unless it was with Calum._ Woah, where did that thought come from? I didn’t even remember sex with him. I was too gone to remember it. I shaked myself from that thought. “So, want me to drive you home?” I asked. 

“I have to go in and get some work done and as much fun as this little sleepover was, you should probably be getting back to yours, sure you have some stuff to get done.”

Calum glanced at me and seemed thoughtful for a moment, “No, my day is pretty empty right now.” He replied. I could just barely see the upturned corner of his mouth on the side that was not towards me. “Hmmm”

“Well, do you want to get some clothes to change into?” I asked.

“Well well, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you were trying to get rid of me” his smirk now clear as day, and a mischievous look in his eyes.

“No, just if you come to the gym with me. I’m going to put you to work.” I said with a slight laugh, “Skinny jeans and boots probably aren’t the best attire.” I shrugged.

He sat back in his seat, “I’ll manage”

******************************************************************************

When they got to the gym, they were greeted by Jessica sitting on the front entrance steps. She had an amused look on her face. “I didn’t realize we now offered a taxi service for new members.” She said as she walked over to meet me getting out of the car. “Jessica, this is Calum. Calum this is my assistant and basically the lady in charge of running this place, Jessica.” Jessica glanced him over head to toe and nodded. Calum extended his hand to shake hers. She looked at the hand then back up to his face and turned around, walking back into the building. I looked at Calum and chuckled a little. “What?” He asked, very confused. I just shook my head and walked in to find Jessica. 

“Thanks for scaring the poor guy” I said, walking in her office. She looked up at me and rolled her eyes. “That boy saw the muscles and couldn’t help himself. Then he smelled money. I’ve seen it before.” She said as she stopped what she was doing. She looked at me intently, “He’s using you Matt”. I frowned and sat down, “Hasn’t been any ‘using’ yet” I sighed. She looked at me for a second and then back to her laptop in front of her, she knew I wanted to change the subject. Thankfully, we had worked together for long enough that we picked up on each other's verbal and non-verbal cues at this point. 

I waited a moment, listening to her type on her laptop. “I’m going to move some equipment out of the back. I hate that row machine we have out on the floor and want to bring out one of the free weight style ones.” I stated. I waited for confirmation from her. I owned the gym, but she ran it and had more interactions with the overall member population than I did and would know if this would upset people or not. “Ok” she said after a second, “Who’s going to help you move it though?” She asked, “I think just Cornelius is here, but he is booked for the rest of the day.”

“Calum is” I said simply. She looked at me with an incredulous look and chuckled a little, “You’re actually making him work for it huh?” She laughed to herself. “Go for it then” She said smiling to herself, “If you make him useful, maybe I’ll like him… maybe” She said, the end of her sentence had a slight tone of seriousness, but the corners of her mouth were slightly upturned. I got up and decided to go find where the dark headed, tan beauty went. _Did I just think of him as a ‘beauty’?_ _I need to figure this shit out ASAP_. I went to go find where Calum had wandered off to, he was at the front desk talking to Ashley. 

“Hey guys.” I said while walking up. I saw that they both had a smile on their faces that didn’t fade when I joined them. Calum smiled at me and my heart skipped a beat, but I tried my best to not show it. It seemed to work, since there was no teasing or smirk. “What’s going on here?” 

“Oh nothing, Calum was just introducing himself.” She told me and sneaked a grin at Calum. I looked at her curiously and her eyes said that she would tell me about it later. I nodded, “Well, glad you two know each other now. Unfortunately, I have to steal Calum to help me move some stuff.” I said to Ashely with a smirk. She tried her best to hide her laugh, but a chuckle came out anyway. Calum just looked between us, “What?” He asked. Ashley and I just shrugged at each other. “Well, I need to go back to my job. Nice to meet you Cal!” She said and walked away. 

******************************************************************************

_20 minutes later_

“Fuck me” exhaled Calum as he was drenched in sweat. They were in the storage area of the gym. “Yeah?” I asked, I had barely broken a sweat. Perks of being a gym owner, I guess. I sighed, “Come on stop being a wimp. On three we pick it up and put it on the dolly. OK?” I looked at Calum for confirmation. The machine was a bit heavy but between the two of us it should be manageable. They had just moved the other machine back here, which was way heavier since it had all the weights attached to it. 

“Yeah” was all Calum said in reply. “Ok then, 1, 2, 3” We both lifted and moved over to set the machine carefully on the dolly. Calum a little less carefully, but more out of exhaustion than recklessness. “Nice!” I said and walked over and clapped Calum on the back. The current was there, but I consciously ignored it since I was at work. Calum had straightened up at the touch though.

“No, problem” He said, still a little out of breath. This was probably more exercise than he was used to doing since he was practically dripping in sweat. I just chuckled a little at him. “Ok, I’m going to move this out on the floor” Calum nodded. I went ahead and pushed the dolly out of the back room and onto the floor. I got it into the spot that I wanted it and then slid the dolly out from under it. I checked to make sure it was safe to use and then went back to return the dolly to the storage room. 

I walked in and deposited the dolly into its appropriate spot. I then felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist and pull me in. I could feel the sweat dripping from the body that I had been pulled into. Calum’s head fell on my shoulder and we just stood there. I smiled and felt myself melt into the embrace. “This is crazy” I finally said, “I barely know you.” His lips pressed into my neck leaving soft kisses there.

“So?” He replied, his voice soft and almost a whisper. I couldn’t come up with a response to that, so I turned around to stare into his eyes. He glanced down at me as I started to bite my bottom lip. He looked back up at my eyes and started to lean forward. _Is he going to kiss me? Yep that is what he is going to do._ My train of thought broke as Calum’s lips touched mine. He was so gentle, it was like he was trying to convey a message, but the only message that I was getting was that I did not want this to stop, ever. The current from earlier had amplified and spread all over my body. It felt like every nerve in my body was going into overdrive. The scent of Calum, musky and manly tinged with sweat was filling my nose and I couldn’t think of something that smelled any better at this moment. I let out a soft moan and opened my mouth involuntarily, he took this chance to slide his tongue into my mouth and deepen the kiss. Our tongues fought for dominance. I relented and let him take it, preferring it that way. His hands had moved to my hips and were pulling me in tighter. Our bodies were pushed onto each other, no gap between us. 

One of my hands slid up his back and the other had moved to hold his side, I realized then that I was pulling Calum into me. Normally I’d think about how I shouldn’t be doing this, especially not at work in a damn storage room but right now the only thing going through my mind was Calum. His smell, the taste of him, his lips… One of my hands moved into his hair and the kiss broke apart so we could breathe. Our foreheads resting together, we stayed like that for a moment breathing heavily and stayed pushed up against each other. At some point Calum had guided us over to the wall, which was good since I desperately needed it for support. I let my head fall back against the concrete wall, hoping that the absence of Calum’s breath would help clear the fog that had fallen over his brain. Calum nuzzled into the crook of my neck, _Fuck, fuck fuck_ was all that could go through my head. His breath fell on my neck and I moved my head, so he had more access to it.

Calum took the hint and started to softly press kisses into my neck. I was in heaven… or hell depending on how you viewed it. I really didn’t care either way I just didn’t want it to stop.

“Matt?” came a voice, the door started to creak open and Calum immediately detached himself and hid behind a machine. I was in a daze and couldn’t even make sense of whose voice was calling me. “Uhm, yeah?” I replied, hopefully they wouldn’t notice that I was basically out of it. Calum was like a fucking drug, and he was already going into withdrawal... or he just craved him more. My brain started to defog a little. “Just wondering if you were doing alright” came the voice of Corn, damn that trainer. “Yeah, I’m good. Just looking around. Forgot we had some of this shit” He laughed trying to act normal while trying to steady his voice and get his breathing back to normal. Corn looked at him. “Ok, was just checking on you” “Thanks” I replied. He started to walk away and then turned back around, “Oh and one of your friends is here, they’re waiting in your office.” I nodded and thanked him.

He left and I ran my hands through my hair as Calum came out from the piece of equipment he had hidden behind. One of his hands went to rest on my back and I had to resist the urge to relax into it. “Umm, I should go see why my friend is here.” I stated, having to close my eyes to focus on the words I was saying. Thankfully, it wasn’t a well-lit room and I was facing away from Calum so he couldn’t see the flush that was all over my face. “Ok” He said and kissed my cheek, his lips lingering for a moment too long. I had to stop myself from turning around and pushing him back against the wall. He detached himself, “Text me later” He looked into my eyes and I nodded back involuntarily, “Ok”. Calum smirked at me and walked out, his fingers brushing my cheek as he left. 

My mind was still reeling from what the fuck had just occurred. All these encounters with Calum left it in a haze and feeling a bit drunk. He decided to count to a hundred to regain his composure. It kind of worked, if worked meant that he could breathe at a normal rate again that is. I then noticed the massive boner that Calum had caused in my shorts. “No way he didn’t notice that” I groaned to myself. I adjusted myself and tucked the inconvenience into my waistband and walked out of the storage room. Hoping that whoever was visiting wouldn’t notice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short little chapter, but I like it. 
> 
> Gonna try and go into some heavier stuff in the next few chapters... Should be fun lol. 
> 
> Hope you guys don't hate my crappy first person writing too much. I wish I had written this in 3rd person but oh well.


	7. Confront

I walked into my office expecting to see Darby or maybe Zehra. Instead I saw a pair of green piercing eyes staring at me from behind my desk.

“What’s up?” Ashton asked.

“Just busy” I replied cautiously, not knowing why Ashton was here or how he knew where I worked. He was Calum’s friend so he probably knew about the gym because of him, but the why was still an unanswered question in my mind. I’m sure the reason for the trip would come out soon enough though, from my previous interactions with him, the man seemed to be pretty straight forward for the most part.

“Just figured I’d check up on you, didn’t end up seeing Calum last night after the bar.” There seemed to be an unspoken question following the statement. Do I answer it? Do I play dumb? Hmmm.

“Yeah, he drove me and Milcah home.” I replied simply.

“I figured that much” Ashton said with a slight chuckle. “I’m more interested in the him not going back to his place last night”, there was a gleam in his eyes, almost daring me to tell him everything.

“He may have fallen asleep on my couch” I shrugged, leaving out the fact that he fell asleep on the couch with me. He raised his eyebrows at me.

“Ok” He said and got up to leave the room.

“That’s all?” I asked as he got to the door.

“Is there something else I should ask about?” He asked, his expression had turned to amused and that glint in his eye had returned, daring me to tell him everything. I held back.

“I don’t think so…” I said and hesitated, “What is his deal though Ashton? I can’t read him.” Ashton snorted in reply, “When I find out how to read him, I’ll let you know.” He hesitated after saying this and then walked out. Over his shoulder he shouted, “Will have to go out to the bar again sometime Matt, but none of those shite shots.” “Deal” I replied. Ashton was cool and seemed like the older brother type of friend. He would be there when you needed him and when you didn’t, he’d still be there to give you shit. Ashton waved and left. His impromptu visit had raised some questions.

_ Was it not normal for Calum to not go home? _

_ Was Ashton worried about Calum? _

_ Did the boys like me? _

So many questions had sprung up and I had no answers for any of them. I was tired, even though I had done absolutely nothing today and slept in. Maybe it was more of a distracted mental tired… hmmm, I hadn’t felt like this in a while. It felt like I needed to go work out. “ughh” slipped out of my mouth, “I need to go for a run”

******************************************************************************

_ Twenty minutes later _

__

Darby’s old Lincoln sedan pulled up and in the process of parking it she almost hit three other cars. How she is such a good driver and a terrible parker I would never understand. To her credit she had never been in an accident, so she gets props for that. She got out of her car and yelled out “You ready?”, she was in running shorts and a sports bra. For some reason it was unreasonably warm for December, almost sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit. We both had opted to wear our fall running attire that got broken out on occasion.

“Ready to sprint away my feelings!” I replied, a fake cheerfulness permeating my tone. It was my natural cycle, bottle up feelings, drink, and then cry or run. Crying also usually came with talking to someone so running was my go-to. Even if running just kind of bottled up my feelings again.

“Let’s get going” I said and started out walking down the street. I looked around and admired the scenery outside the gym. It reminded me of where I grew up, out in the middle of nowhere. Behind the gym was a field that was used in the warmer months for outdoor classes. It was one of my favorite spots since it was surrounded by trees that brought back memories of the woods by my childhood home. Whenever home sickness would sneak up on me, that was where I inevitably went. To think, to cry, to call my mom and cry about dumb shit, It was his spot.

“Hey! Earth to Matty” Darby’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Oh yeah! Ready?” I asked and started jogging off. Darby fell into step beside me and we started our usual route around the property. After a few minutes, I looked at Darby and we broke out into a sprint. Our long legs did the heavy lifting for us, and we found a good stride that we were able to stay in sync with. The reason I needed to run today was to turn it all off. Running does that for me, it takes me out of my head, and everything just becomes irrelevant. For the thirty minutes or so that I decide to go out, the only thoughts going through my head are focused on my breath, stride, and not falling. I noticed Darby slowing out of the corner of my eye, but decided to let myself keep going for another ten seconds. I felt my side burning and the air scraping my throat, my stride became more exaggerated in an effort to slow down. As I came to a stop, I noticed Darby jogging over to catch up. She nodded and we slowed to a walk to rest for the next sprint. She looked over at me with some concern on her face, but I ignored her still needing to catch my breath.

“We’re going to talk about it” She stated simply, no judgment in her voice. “K” I exhaled out, “After” I nodded at her and we broke back out into a sprint. It had been a while since we did a sprint session together and I had a feeling this was helping her as much as it was helping clear my mind. The second round of sprinting felt like it lasted twice as long. When I slowed down to a stop I was out of breath and had to make a conscious effort to slow down my breathing.

We were on the other side of the property now, almost at the tree line into the woods and I just stopped to stare at them. Darby came up beside me, a silent agreement that we were taking a break. I went to sit down on the grass, she followed suit.

“What’s on your mind?” She asked. Darby must have known this was the reason for the running session that I texted her about right after Ashton had left the gym.

“Ashton visited me at the gym today.” I replied.

“And?” She asked. When we had these talks it either ended with her telling me I’m a dumbass, working my problems out, or both.

“He just seemed… concerned for Calum” I replied while biting at my lip.  _ Shit that’s a nervous habit _ . I haven’t bit my lip since before starting the gym. Darby seemed to notice and laid her hand on my thigh, I looked down at it and then up to her making eye contact.

“Why do you care?” She asked, I looked away from her. “I’m not sure… We fell asleep on the couch and I woke up and he was holding me.” I told her, not letting myself make eye contact because I was aware how sappy it sounded and how to her It would be as if I had a crush. “I don’t know why I’m even talking about it.”

“Well, you are talking about it and as far as I know Calum is the first one since…” She trailed off.

“Yeah.” I replied simply. Darby knew my past trauma and it wasn’t something that I cared to talk about often. The reason why I had commitment issues, would wake up in the middle of the night with panic attacks, or randomly close myself off and need to cry. I had gotten better since opening the gym, but certain things trigger me. Darby and Zehra are the only ones who know about it outside of my family and that was only because of how far away I am from them and needed someone to talk to when I had an episode.

“With him it feels natural… and terrifying at the same time. I haven’t had immediate feelings like this since… Josh” I almost whispered. She reached over and pulled me into a hug. She reached up to my cheek and wiped away a tear that had started to fall.

“So, what’s your plan?” She asked me. I could never hear concern or worry in her tone when we had these conversations, I thanked her for that. I needed the steady unwavering voice to hold onto or else I’d be a mess.

“I can either avoid him entirely or see where this goes.”

“I don’t see the former happening”

“Me either” I said and stood up. I wiped the dried tears from my face and took a deep breath, “Ok, talking about feelings done. Time to run again.”

Darby stood up, “Deal”

******************************************************************************

I got out of the gym shower and changed into some spare clothes I had lying around my office. I spent some time brainstorming what I wanted to do for the new years rush that always happened, ending up settling on a discount deal for the month of January. It was boring, but effective when paired with some new classes and an incentive that I would have Jessica figure out. She was good with that stuff, or she just delegated it to the fitness department lead. Either way, it got done so I wouldn’t have to worry about it.

Before I knew it, my phone was in my hand and I had opened up the conversation with Calum. I typed out a message asking if he wanted to grab a drink tonight and contemplated sending it. While I was debating, to send or not to send a notification popped up.

**_Wanna hang out? – AJ_ **

****

**_Yeah! Are you down Matt? – Vic_ **

****

I contemplated it for a minute, it would get my mind off of Calum and I could talk catch up with them. I had been terrible at hanging out with friends lately, the girls only got my attention because of how routine it was and how much they knew about me.

**_I’m down, where at? – Me_ **

****

I looked back at the message I’d typed out to Calum and deleted it. I needed to still process what I was feeling for him.


	8. Cooked

It had been a few months since I last got to hang out with AJ and even longer since seeing Victoria. They had a group chat and would talk a good amount there and facetimed every now and again, but it wasn’t the same. AJ would online game with me occasionally, but they were all so busy and hanging out was hard to do. Seeing them would be nice.

I decided on a pair of adidas joggers, a hoodie, and vans. Both AJ and Victoria preferred to keep their places cold, I did too but they basically wanted to be able to see their breath at all times. I didn’t mind, it just meant that I got to wear comfy clothes. I grabbed my phone and sent them a quick text letting them know that I was waiting on the uber and would see them soon.

**_Sounds good! – AJ_ **

****

As I waited on the uber I grabbed a glass of water and chugged it. Hanging out with AJ usually meant drinking, hanging out with both AJ and Victoria meant they were definitely going to be drinking, or chugging depending on the mood, and filling each other in on their lives. AJ had been picked up by an engineering company after graduation and Victoria working with a construction company. They both were very happy, at least that is what he had gathered from their conversations.

**Your driver is outside – Uber**

I jumped and ran out of the house, almost forgetting to lock the front door. I walked up to the car; it had an UBER sticker, so it was kind of hard to miss. The driver rolled the window down, “Are you Matt?” he asked; “Yes Sir.” I replied and heard the door unlock and got in. I preferred to not speak to the drivers usually, just would rather be in my own world. I grabbed some headphones out of my pocket and stuck them in my ear. I went to one of my normal playlists and scrolling through to find a good song. I stopped on  _ All the Small Things – Blink-182 _ and queued it to play. I laid back in the seat and looked out the window, watching the scenery pass by.

******************************************************************************

_ 25 minutes later _

The uber driver had just dropped me off at AJ’s place. It had been a while since he had been to the apartment complex he lived at. He buzzed for AJ to let him in and made his way to the elevator. The ride up to the fifth floor of the complex was a short one.

I knocked on the door and after a few seconds it flew open and I saw Victoria with a wine glass in hand almost empty. Her red hair was all over the place and her freckled face lit up when she smiled. She set the glass down on a table by the door and pulled me in for a hug.

“I’ve missed you, idiot!” She said and then pulled away, the wine glass returning to her hand. “AJ, he’s here!” She called into the apartment. AJ peeked up from the couch with a beer in hand and waved. I made my way over to the fridge and grabbed an Angry Orchard, it was AJ’s favorite drink for some reason. I looked around and spotted fireball in the corner of the kitchen. I opened the bottle and poured it into a beer glass along with two shots of fireball. The color turned slightly darker with the addition of cinnamon whiskey. I took a sip and smiled into it, the taste of cinnamon apple reminding me of fall and Christmas.

“Anyone need a refill?” I asked before making my way over. “Yeah, grab what’s left of that bottle of wine please.” Victoria called out. I grabbed it and made my way over to the couch. I didn’t have to worry too much about her getting drunk, she shared a tolerance with me. Growing up in rural southern Virginia tended to give you a decent tolerance. AJ, however, could get drunk off of Whiteclaws, he had gotten better but he hadn’t drank with us in a while so his tolerance was probably back to nothing.

We settled on the couch and asked all the normal questions of each other, “How are you?”, “How’s work?”, etc. Victoria finished off her bottle of wine as I finished up my first drink. I was feeling warm inside from the cinnamon. She went to the kitchen and came back with a handle of patron, some salt, and three shot glasses. I laughed at her, she had always been a tequila drinker, I don’t know why I would ever expect that to change.

“So, we are just gonna go in huh?” I asked looking at her. A smile had cracked on my face and she just shrugged and filled up two shots. AJ still had half his beer left and neither of us wanted to see him get too drunk yet, we had to power through a few shots before we were even with him. I looked at Vic, we clinked and down they went. The bite of tequila hit my throat, but thankfully patron was manageable.

“I will never understand how y’all can just…” Aj said eyes wide as Vic went to pour another round. This time adding a third in for AJ. “And I’ll never understand how you get drunk off of a case of claws” I replied, a condescending tone had entered my voice. It was all good natured, AJ had been my friend since freshman year of college, then we became roommates, and from there we were just great friends.

“Yeah, I mean… you’re gay, not a freshman sorority bitch” Victoria said laughing. She had one of those laughs that made you want to laugh; it was just infectious. It had been a while since I had heard it.

“Ughhhh, that was one-time guys!” AJ groaned; he rolled his eyes. “No, it was like five times. Remember when Connor and I came over and we drank with your mom and you just started talking shit about chicken nuggets and almost came out to her. Oh wait… you probably don’t.” I giggled, Victoria joined in and then we were done for. We both had tears from laughing so hard. AJ did not look amused. “So glad I invited y’all over”, he reached for a shot, Vic and I grabbed one as well. “Here’s to friends… or something” AJ said. We clinked and downed them. AJ visibly shuddered and ran to grab something from the kitchen to chase it down with. Vic and I just laughed more, “Sorry, I don’t have a drinking problem” he called out after finding some Gatorade tucked away in his fridge. “I don’t have a drinking problem! I just enjoy the taste” Victoria shouted back, fake hurt in her voice and her hand over her chest in a dramatic fashion. I missed this, missed them. We all were to blame partially for not hanging out more, but I was the main reason. They both had steady nine to five jobs, and mine was hectic… especially in the past few months with all the construction and expanding. It seemed like none of that mattered right now though, we all were happy, smiling, and laughing away like we used to in college.

******************************************************************************

_ Some shots later… _

“Why the hell did you get ‘hakuna matata’ tattooed on your wrist?!” I said a little too loudly, tears streaming down my face from laughing too hard. Victoria and I were laughing about the tattoo that AJ had neglected to tell us about getting about a month ago.

“I wanted to?” He said back with a look of annoyance on his face. This just made both Victoria and I die of laughter even more. “AJ, it’s a Disney reference… on your wrist.” Victoria said between laughs. I grabbed my drink, having switched over to mixed drinks at this point and took a big gulp. AJ looked at me, “Why do you care?”

“Because you’re gonna regret that in like 4 years, guaranteed” I said. Victoria nodded from her place on the couch. I had migrated to sitting on the floor of the living room area, with my head against Victoria’s leg. AJ just shrugged and took a sip of his drink. I looked at him and grabbed the tequila bottle that we had put a giant dent in at this point, to the point where it was almost empty;  _ maybe I should reevaluate this binge drinking thing…  _ I grabbed AJ’s glass, poured him a shot, and handed it to him. He looked back at me with raised eyebrows. “I’m good” he said in response.

“That’s why he’s handing you the shot dumby” Victoria said, I smirked at him and handed the shot out to him. He took it, plugged his nose, and threw it back. He immediately coughed and slammed his fist against his chest. “If you are still having that much of a reaction are you even drunk?” I asked him. He flipped me the bird and set his shot glass down. I just giggled at him.

“Anyone new in your life AJ?” Victoria asked wiggling her eyebrows. He scoffed, “Yep, you know me. Got ten new dates all for tomorrow!” His sarcasm dripping from every word. She rolled her eyes at him, “Bitch”.

She then turned to me, “What about you?” her eyebrows raised. “Nah, too busy.” I replied, it wasn’t a lie, there wasn’t anything official going on, and even if I kind of wanted to gush about the black-haired boy and about how he could absolutely ruin me I didn’t. “That’s bullshit” She said, “You’re just afraid.” My mouth dropped and I just stared at her. Her filter was completely gone from the alcohol and she was getting to her bitchy stage. “Vic!” Aj said to her. I still stared at her, not wanting to even engage in this conversation. I got up, put on my shoes, and left. No one said a word as I walked out of the apartment. I could feel my throat starting to close up and knew that if I stayed in there I would either breakdown and cry or yell at her, walking out seemed the best option.

I walked down the hall to the stairs and took a seat on the landing. Tears were now flowing down my face.  _ Fuck her, she doesn’t know shit _ . While Victoria was drunk so I should brush it off and not care, but really all this means is that this is what she is actually thinking. I pulled out my phone to start the uber request to go back to my house and felt someone sit down beside me. I knew it was AJ, but I didn’t look at him.

“You know she is drunk”

“I know” I replied.

“Ok” he said, and we sat on the stairs not talking, my phone off and just something to hold in my hands at that point. The tears threatening to start flowing again.

“You know why…” I said while focusing on a specific stair a few down from where they were sitting.

“Mhmm” AJ replied, “I also know you look happier.” I snorted at that and turned to him, “Yeah, I’m a vision of holiday cheer right now” I spat back.

“Well not right now asshole” He laughed back and nudged my shoulder, “I don’t know, you just seem ok right now, its been a while since I’ve seen that.” AJ had been my roommate when I hit my breaking point about a year and a half ago. “Doesn’t feel like it…” I said and looked back at the stair. “Some days it feels like I can’t get out of bed…” I said softly and closed my eyes. I could feel AJ rest his hand on my back trying to comfort in one of the only ways he knew. We stayed like that for what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes. He started to rub circles in my back and my eyes went dry at some point, the threat of tears gone.

“I think I’m going to go to the gym… will you drive me?” I asked.

“Are you working out?” he asked, “I don’t think so” I replied. He nodded and understood that I needed to walk around in the fresh air. It was one thing that I missed from home, being able to just walk outside whenever and get fresh air and clear my head. Up here there weren’t many places you could.

******************************************************************************

AJ dropped me off at the gym, I walked out back to the path that I ran earlier with Darby and to the little clearing and sat down. I sat there and just smelled the scent of fresh air, it smelled like there could be some rain coming, but it was faint enough in the air that it wasn’t too concerning. I stayed like that for a while thinking about how I had gotten myself to this point. I thought back to college and how I had basically said my degree was worthless and changed career paths overnight and how everyone had thought I was going to fail when I said I was opening up a gym. I glanced behind me at the building that I now owned and felt a sense of pride. I had built this from the ground up, this was mine! The tears started to come back out of nowhere, my chest tightened in on itself and my throat began to close up. I grabbed my knees and brought them to my chest. I sat there in the grass and sobbed. Memories of Josh coming back, causing a pain in my heart that only made the tears come faster and harder.

After a while, the tears stopped coming but the pain didn’t fade. I was used to this by now, it had been almost two years since he left. The pain had gotten to a manageable point, but every now and again it just hit like a truck.

I didn’t even notice a hand on my shoulder until it barely squeezed me. I had gone back to a quasi-fetal position and I must have slipped back into crying. I glanced to my side and saw Calum sitting there beside me, he offered up a small smile with a worried look in his eyes. I turned away from him and did my best to steel my expression and emotions away, taking a few deep breaths until it was normal enough for me to talk.

“How long have you been there?” I asked, trying to keep any and all emotion out of my voice, not sure if it was working.

“A few minutes…” He admitted, “I saw you came back here on find my friends and…” he trailed off, looking like he was not sure what to say.

“So now I have a stalker?” I asked, a slight smile slipping onto my face. He sent a soft smile back, and a hint of blush grew on his face.

“You just sparked my curiosity is all” he said

I turned back towards the trees and inhaled deeply, “I love the smell of rain” I said and closed my eyes, partly to take in the smell more and partly to keep myself from crying again. Calum had come for something, probably sex or whatever but then came over and comforted me. It was nice, despite whatever the original intentions were.

“The smell of rain?” he asked, “I didn’t know rain had a smell” He cocked his head to the side and looked at me. I heard him take a deep sniff at the air.

“Yeah, I’m not smelling rain” he said with a little laugh. I had nothing to say, my brain was not in a place to be able to make small talk about anything, my eyes were set staring at the trees, but my thoughts were far away. I could hear the rain begin to fall in the woods but didn’t process it until I felt the rain drops fall on my face and mix with the dried tears.

“Smell it now?” I asked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it has been a few days since updating, work, summer classes, and family have kept me busy. 
> 
> :)


	9. Drenched

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, a bit of smut, a bit of feelings...

After a few minutes of rain fall around us, Calum grabbed me around the waist and made me stand up. I didn’t fight it, not having the strength to protest being moved. I knew that I needed to go inside at this point too, the rain had drenched my hoodie and if I didn’t go into the warm now, I’d have a cold tomorrow. When Calum grabbed me I didn’t feel the electricity that I had come to associate with his touch, I wasn’t really feeling anything at the moment though… I felt numb. The only thing that I could feel right now was that I wasn’t good enough.

As we made it to the back door of the gym, I moved away from Calum to get to the keypad that was hidden in the wall. I keyed in date of my birthday and the pound sign. The door clicked open and I walked inside. Calum shut the door behind him as he followed. We were now in a carpeted hallway that led to the offices in the building for the directors of each different section. I didn’t make a move to continue down though and just slid down the wall beside me and sat on the floor. My legs coming into my chest almost on instinct, my arms wrapping around them.

Calum stood near me for a minute and then he slowly slid down the opposite wall to sit across from me. His legs stretched out on either side of me, and his arms crossed at his side. He watched me as the tears threatened to return at the edges of my eyes. I blinked them away, _you are not allowed to cry anymore_. I let my chin rest on my knees and looked back at Calum, a wave of calm washed over me as I looked him in the eyes. He leaned forward and his hand reached out to wrap around my calf.

“You don’t have to talk about it” He said, there was concern in his voice.

I didn’t answer right away, thinking about what I would even say. _Yeah, I was just having a breakdown over my ex who just ran away one day. Add onto that some childhood trauma and I’m big messed up_. Yeah, that would go over great. “Ok” I replied. I looked back at him, I tried to say something with my eyes, let him know that I was damaged, that I was fucked up for lack of a better word. I don’t think he got the message because he just squeezed me calf a little and then let his arm rest on my knees, so his hand could rest on my upper back. He began to rub circles where his hand was laying. I closed my eyes, letting it relax me for a minute.

“Calum” I started, opening my eyes to look at him again. My heart melted when I saw the small smile that had worked its way onto his lips that was mirrored in his eyes. I just stopped and we stared into each other’s eyes.

“Matt” He said back, snapping me out of whatever had just taken over.

“Why did you come here?”

“I told you, I was curious.” He said. There was a glint in his eyes after a moment, he stopped rubbing circles into my back and just let his hand rest there. “You… confuse me.” He said finally.

“Why?” I asked back, my brows furrowed. _What could be so interesting about me._

“Well, you forgot who I was after having admittedly the best night of my life, you also are successful in what you do, and you have some weird ass mates.” He laughed towards the end. I looked at him with a _what the fuck did you just say about my friends_ look and he just smiled back, “Weird ass, but cool” he amended to his previous statement. I nodded and slowly relaxed out of my fetal position. Letting my arms shift to on my knees, with my head lifting to be on my arms.

“Says the guy who has a best friend with dyed red hair.” I said and chuckled a little.

Calum looked up, grabbed his chin to look like he was thinking something over. “Yep, says that guy.” He smiled and moved over to sit beside me. I leaned my back against the wall and Calum’s arm fell into place around my shoulder. The electricity that was missing outside had returned in a dull manner, and I felt a small buzz running over my arm and shoulder which were against Calum’s side.

I let my head fall onto Cal’s shoulder and my eyes slipped close. Listening to his breathing was helping me get mine back to a normal pattern from earlier. “I have some demons” I said, breaking the silence that had fallen between the two.

“We all do” He replied not pushing the topic. I was grateful for this and let out a breath that had felt like I’d been holding since leaving AJ’s.

With that I let myself melt into Cal against the wall.

******************************************************************************

We sat there for a while, talking about random stuff. How Calum had gotten into the band, how he had met the boys, how I had ended up in Northern Virginia, how I had met Milcah, Zee, and Darby, why I switched from engineering to building my own gym essentially starting a business even though I didn’t see it that way. It was almost three AM when Calum removed his arm and got up.

“It’s getting late” He said

“Yep” I replied missing the physical contact.

“Do you want me to drive you home?” He asked. I nodded and we got up to make our way through the facility. The gym didn’t open for two more hours so it was dark and silent. If it had been full, hopefully I would’ve had the decency to make it to my room before curling up in a ball like someone who had actual mental health issues. I didn’t have anything that really warranted that behavior. I just needed to deal with my baggage. As we made our way to the front door, I saw one car in the parking lot. I bust out laughing and Calum just looked at me like I was insane.

“What??” He asked, a look of pure confusion painted on his face. That just made me laugh harder. I straightened myself up and wiped a tear that had appeared from laughter from my eye.

“Nothing, just never pegged you as an SUV kind of guy” I said a few laughs escaping at the end. He just rolled his eyes at me and walked over to his car.

“You coming?” He shouted out. I laughed and jogged out of the gym over to his car and got in. The first thing I noticed when I got in his car was that it smelled like him, like it had that distinct aroma that reminded me almost of burning wood for a bonfire mixed with something clean. It was something I could get used to.

“I’m still confused about something” Calum said as he started the car.

“And what is that?” I asked

“You didn’t like actually smell the rain, right?” He said glancing up at the sky for a moment. I snickered as a reply. He looked at me amused.

“Well, when you grow up by a few farms and people depend on the rain, you kind of just develop a way to know when its going to storm. Maybe it’s more like the humidity change in the air? I’m not entirely sure, but its just something you can smell… I don’t know” I rambled while glancing out the window. Calum just smiled and moved one of his hands to my thigh. I looked down at it, and just smiled. _Is this what this is becoming, he gets all touchy all the time?_ _I’m not complaining if it is but like I need to stay up to date on all these developments_. I looked back at Calum and went to ask the question ‘ _What are we doing Cal?’_ , but I decided against it and just kept my mouth shut, enjoying the warmth of his hand on my thigh and the comfort it was bringing me.

We pulled up to my house and I got out of the car, expecting to just wave Calum good night and see him drive off. I wasn’t that lucky _or maybe I was?_ Calum had killed the engine and gotten out and started walking over to me as I made my way to my house.

“Ummm, what are you doing?” I asked him.

“I’m not leaving after tonight” He stated authoritatively.

“But…” I interjected, he held up his hand to cut me off.

“I’ll take the couch” he said. I debated for a moment if I should just let this happen or not, in the end I just sighed and unlocked my front door and gestured to let him inside. He stepped through the entry way and into the foyer. We both took our shoes off and I was then painfully aware that most of my clothes, including my socks, were still very wet.

“Ummm, I just realized that my socks are soaked, so I’m going to hop in the shower. If you want to take one there is a downstairs shower and I think I have some folded laundry in the there.” I said as I pointed towards the laundry room. “Ill just be like fifteen, twenty minutes max.” I made my way up stairs and turned on my shower, thankful that I sprang for the infinity shower. I stripped down and went in the shower, I turned on the speakers and queued up a 2000’s country playlist. The familiar sound of old Taylor, Brad Paisley, and Blake Shelton enough to make me remember home and my mama.

_I'm stuck on you_

_Whoa-oh, whoa-oh_

_Stuck like glue_

_You and me baby_

_We're stuck like glue_

I started to sing along to the Sugarland song that Mom and I used to sing together in the car. It put a big smile on my face as memories of Mom trying to sing the more word intensive portion of the song came to mind. My smile was huge as the song came to an end. Then Little Big Town came on and lost my shit. One of my favorite country songs that I knew every word to came on and I went all out.

_I feel no shame_

_I'm proud of where I came from_

_I was born and raised in the boondocks_

_One thing I know_

_No matter where I go_

_I keep my heart and soul in the boondocks_

As I was belting out part of chorus, feeling my twang coming out I felt a pair of arms wrap around me. In too good of a mood now, I turned my head and saw Calum behind me. He was just smiling at me, I stopped singing and smirked at him.

“I thought I told you that there was a shower downstairs”

“Yeah, but I heard someone singing and had to see what was going on” He said.

“Mhmmm” I said. I went back to singing this song, I could appreciate Calum in his nakedness and in my shower later. Right now, was the time for me to sing this damn song. In the back of my mind I realized that Calum was naked in my shower, in my house… but the other part of me was just vibing with this song right now.

_You get a line, I'll get a pole_

_We'll go fishing in the craw fish hole_

_Five-card poker on a Saturday night (sing a little prayer for me)_

_Church on Sunday morning_

Once the song finished, I turned around and met Calum’s eyes.

“You enjoy the show?” I asked, my eyebrows raised up at him.

“I knew you were kind of country… but damn if that wasn’t some twang coming out” Calum showed the biggest smile I think I’d ever seen out of him and starting to laugh.

“What?” I asked.

“What?” He replied back in a fake southern accent that sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

“I don’t fuckin’ sound like that” I could hear the southern coming through, it wasn’t my fault I had gone through a few songs with some heavy twang, and boondocks always brought it out. That song was quintessential country shit. Calum just raised his eyes at me and laughed. Then he leaned in and kissed my cheek, quickly but sweetly.

“I think it’s cute.” My blush must have exploded on my face at this, because Cal just smirked. I laughed a little awkwardly now realizing what was happening in the shower.

“Well, I’m pretty warmed up now… Should probably get out now” I said and reached for the door handle. Calum grabbed my arms and pushed me against the wall of the shower. I gasped and stared at him, the water waterfalling from his head down onto his body was a sight that I had yet to take in, previously trying to keep my eyes to his face. Calum smirked as he saw my eyes travel down his body.

He moved his head close to me and leaned his forehead against mine, staring me in the eyes. After a moment he moved his mouth forward kissing my jaw up to my ear. He bit at my lobe making me moan out, he laughed lowly at the noise that had escaped my throat. “Why do you keep trying to pull away from me?” He whispered into my ear.

“I… I… don’t think tha… that I am?” I fake asked him, I knew it was fake as fuck, so Calum definitely did. We had spent barely any time together and he seemed to know me already.

Cal lowered his lips down to place a gentle kiss at my neck, he let go of one my hands to move his down to my back and mine immediately grabbed onto his hair. I pulled him in closer, telling him to keep going. He immediately stopped and moved to rest his forehead back against mine.

“You keep giving me mixed signals Matt. We fucked drunk, then we almost did again the morning after, you played coy with me so that I could even get your name, and now whenever I see you, you act like you don’t want to see me” He moved his hand from my back down my side, letting his fingernails graze over my skin leaving goosebumps and making me shiver.

“I-I dunn- dunno what you’re tal… “ I trailed off as his hand wrapped around my dick.

“I’m sorry what was that? Didn’t quite catch the end of your sentence.” He said

“I….” Calum started to stroke my length at that moment, applying just the write amount of pressure at the right time. His other hand had moved off my other wrist and had taken up residence at my hip keeping me pushed up against the wall. If it hadn’t been for that I would be thrusting up into Calum’s hand chasing release.

“You have to be more communicative here Matt” his smirk was still plastered onto his face as he slowed down and sped up his ministrations.

“Calum” I said and looked him in the eyes, lust clouding my vision. Calum’s smirk grew into a toothy grin, he nodded. I laid my head back against the wall and closed my eyes, waiting for Calum to finish up the hand job he was giving me.

“Holy fucking shit Cal!” My eyes snapped open and looked down to see Calum licking the head of my cock. He looked up at me and winked before taking every inch of me in his mouth. I felt the back of my throat and I saw starts for a minute. I devolved into a mess of a moans and utterings of “Fuck” and “Shit”. Calum felt so fucking good. Suddenly I felt one of Calum’s fingers probe my ass, I was a mess at this point and had the wall not been there my legs would have given out. I was in Heaven, and then I felt a finger enter me.

“Holy shit! Cal!!” that was the only warning I gave before I felt the tightening of my balls and the accompanying orgasm that came right after. I came so hard and Calum never took his mouth off, sucking every last drop out of me. I slowly slid down the shower wall as I rid out my post orgasm feelings. Calum squatted down and pulled me in for a deep kiss. In my position I was in no position to fight for dominance, not that I would have normally. His tongue slipped into my mouth and I could taste myself on him. What a weird feeling, but I didn’t want this moment to end. As I came out of my post orgasm mental fog, I got more into the kiss; I bit and pulled on his bottom lip which had Calum moaning. I motioned for him to stand up and I was face to face with Calum’s dick.

The deep tan from the rest of his body extended to his dick and I licked my lips before going in to give him the release and pleasure that he had given to me. I teased his head for a bit until he grunted and grabbed the back of my head to go deeper. I took a breath and dove down, taking him down to the base. My nose nuzzled in his raven black pubes.

“Bloody Hell!” He gasped out, I moved up and down his cock occasionally deep throating him all the way down, I looked up at him while sucking him off and saw his face contorted in pleasure and it made my dick twitch. This was the hottest thing I had witnessed. It made me want to suck him better and faster. Anything to keep that look of pleasure on his face.

“Matt! Fuck, Shit” I heard Calum moan out.

I stayed attached to him, still sucking, but getting closer to the head as I did so that I would be able to taste him. One of Calum’s hands pushed against the wall, the other still tangled in my hair. He grabbed a hold and moaned out so loud I’m sure my neighbors heard.

“I’m cumming!” He announced. Then rope after rope of thick liquid ejected out of the head of his cock and landed on my tongue. He tasted sweet and salty, not the worst taste I’ve ever had. I swallowed a few and then noticed it was still coming out of him. _Damn, he cums a lot…_

I swallowed every drop and then slowly sucked his dick until he pulled me off and pulled me up to him. He pulled me into another kiss, this one more tender and then he pulled away and rested his head on my collarbone until he regained his breathing.

“That… was… fuck.” He said and all I could do was nod in response.

I was struggling with my breath, but more than that my head was rushing with feelings. _Fuck, what does this shit mean? This wasn’t just some mutual blowjob in a shower… I cared about his pleasure and it seemed like he cared about mine too…_

My thoughts were interrupted my Calum opening the door of the shower and stepping out and wrapping himself in a towel. “Fuck” I breathed out.

“What?” He asked in response.

“You’re hot as fuck, Cal” I said without thinking, my brain still in a little bit of a post orgasm-fuck haze.

He just laughed and reached his hand out toward me. “Come on, let’s get dressed”

Chapter 10 - ???

**Beep! Beep! Beep!**

My phone on the bedside table woke me up from the best sleep I had experienced in weeks. Calum was still very much passed out next to him, his arm wrapped around my waist. The image of it lazily wrapped around me brought a tear to my eye. _What the fuck? It’s just an arm. A tatted arm that has veins all over it and I need it to stay around me at all times._ Wow, I had issues. Why did his arm around me make me feel all warm and fuzzy? I’m putting that on the backburner and just going to enjoy the feeling of his warm arm around me. I closed my eyes and pushed myself in closer to Calum who was spooning me.

My phone buzzing again made my eyes snap open with annoyance. “This better be a damn emergency.” I muttered to myself. I reached over carefully to grab my phone and not disturb Calum. It was almost 10 am I noted.

**_I’m outside – Vic_ **

****

_Ughhh, why was she like this. Just leave me alone._

**_I’m not leaving until we talk – Vic_ **

****

I groaned out loud and buried my head in the pillow. She wasn’t bluffing, Victoria was what you would call a stubborn ass bitch about most things. When she needed to apologize, she kicked that up a few levels. _She better have fucking coffee._ I only had gotten five hours of sleep in part thanks to her.

I wiggled my way out of Calum’s hold without waking him, he was not a light sleeper apparently, noted. I threw on a shirt and made my way downstairs. I could see her red hair through the frosted glass windows that were on either side of my front door. I threw it open and stared at her. I’m sure the dark circles that were undoubtedly under my eyes only added to my look and made her feel even guiltier. She handed me an iced coffee from Dunkin’. I took it and walked over to the couch. She followed behind me shutting the door and taking off her shoes before joining me. I grabbed a throw and threw it over my lap and sat cross legged on one side as she took the other side. I just stared expectantly at her and sipped my coffee. I was still waking up and she was the one who woke me up.

“How did you sleep?” She asked me in an attempt to break the silence.

I cocked my head to look at her and raised my eyebrows as if to say ‘ _Really?’_. “What do you want?” I asked her dryly, missing the way Calum’s body heat felt against my back.

“To apologize.” She replied sincerely. She set down her coffee on the table and moved towards me. “I was drunk and not in the best mood.”

“That doesn’t excuse it.” I said my eyes meeting hers. I was purposely showing no emotion now, wanting to see her response to my coldness.

“That’s why I’m apologizing Matt!” She said softly. “I know how hard it was for you and-“

“Do you?” I asked.

She hung her head dejectedly in response to my comment. “No, I don’t. I haven’t had someone walk out on me.”

I sighed feeling bad now. I set down my coffee and put my hand on her knee. “I’m not… belittling what has happened to you Vic, but it isn’t the same. You got to confront your people. You got to yell at them, get it all out… I didn’t.” I stated, a hint of sadness now tinging my tone. “I had a perfect life, a perfect relationship, a perfect family one minute and then the next…” I trailed off. I closed my eyes; tears were threatening to fall, and I had cried enough lately. I opened my eyes to see Victoria looking at me with a guilt and sadness, she reached out and hugged me into her. I let her.

“I messed up Matt. I am sorry.”

“I forgive you Vic.” I pulled away and smiled at her. We were good again, back to normal. She smiled back at me and then her smile shifted, her brows narrowed into a ‘V’. I didn’t like this look, she wanted to know something, and she didn’t let up easily.

“So, about the car in your driveway?”

I decided to play coy and not give her anything. “What car?” I asked while grabbing my coffee off the table and taking a sip of it.

It didn’t fool her. “You can tell me, or I can just go up to your room and see for myself.” An evil glint in her eyes appeared when she said this.

_Damn gingers_.

“I don’t think that will be necessary.”

I heard the low baritone voice and glanced over to the stairs to see a shirtless Calum appear. He walked over and sat down next to me on the couch, he grabbed the coffee out of my hands and took a sip. Victoria’s eyes darted between the two of us before settling back on me, an evil grin on her face. She winked at me.

“And who might you be?” She asked, turning to Calum.

“I’m Calum Hood.” He replied extending his hand towards her. She took it and narrowed her eyes towards me for a moment before returning them to Calum. I groaned internally, knowing that this was now going to spread between all of my friends. I prepared myself for the onslaught of messages I would no doubt be getting today.

“Calum, this is Victoria. One of my friends from college.” I said. Calum’s arm retracted from Victoria’s and moved to snake around my side and pull me closer. I was slightly shocked by this outward display of affection, but I didn’t really care. Calum’s warmth soothed me and made me feel at ease. This was not lost on Victoria, I’m sure I would be receiving an interrogation later from her, probably via FaceTime. It would be sooooo much fun.

“Nice to meet you Calum, I’ve heard absolutely nothing about you.”

I stared at Victoria, my jaw dropped slightly before I mentally shaked myself and snapped it back up. My stare shifting into a glare… _If only looks could actually kill…_ Victoria seemed unphased.

“So, how’d you meet our dear friend Matt?” her country twang for some reason more pronounced when she said this.

“Ummm, it’s a funny story.” Calum replied and looked over at me. I snickered to myself and nodded.

“Uninteresting, barely worth remembering actually.” I smiled to myself. Calum just rolled his eyes.

Victoria just raised her eyes and glanced between us. “Alright, well I should get going but I’ll talk to you soon Matt.” She said before getting up and preparing to leave. She stopped before entering the foyer and turned back towards us, “I do hope we see more of you Calum.” Victoria then slipped on her shoes and left.

I shifted my weight so my head was laying on Calum’s chest, his arms were wrapped around my chest. “You have impeccable timing.” I said. I looked up at him and rolled my eyes. He laughed and it vibrated through me, I closed my eyes and relaxed into him.

“I felt you leave and then I heard a girl’s voice.” He stopped and it seemed like he was choosing what he wanted to say before continuing, “You seemed… pissed off almost, but then you two were hugging so…” He shrugged as he trailed off. I laughed in response and just enjoyed the moment, lying in Calum’s embrace as I sipped on iced coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Think this is the end of the story for now, might add another chapter later on that kinda wraps everything up. 
> 
> I didn't really have a plan going into this story, just like had an idea and that was it. So while writing this there was no real direction, which is why there were things that didn't matter one bit. (Like the majority of chapter 2 lol)
> 
> Thanks for reading though!!! Really liking writing, its a good like chill time for me and helps so will prob be doing it more and posting?


End file.
